True Essence Launches With $5.25 Million Series A2 Funding; First Licensing Agreement

INDIANAPOLIS  (Oct. 22, 2021) – True Essence, a new food tech start-up company, announced today that it raised $5.25M in a series A2 funding round with participation from Elevate Ventures, among other private investors. The funding will help True Essence expand its innovative offerings to create a more flavorful and sustainable global food chain. The company has also finalized its first industrial licensing agreement with organic juice bar and restaurant, Greenleaf Foods Inc.

True Essence aligns with partners at every stage of the supply chain to create solutions to food waste and availability challenges by improving shelf stability, while maintaining and preserving flavor via its portfolio of first-to-market products and technologies. The company is behind the Indianapolis-based artisanal chocolate brand SoChatti, known for its flavorful, sustainably packaged and shelf stable chocolate products that come in any array of unique origins.

Leveraging the tech responsible for its groundbreaking flavor preservation and shelf stability achievements in the chocolate category, True Essence is testing and executing with more than 15 industrial company partners across a variety of food and beverage categories including juices and concentrates, fruits and vegetables, fermented products and beverages, and herbs, spices and cannabinoids.

“We’re living in a world where consumer demand for fresh food is increasingly at odds with our planet’s natural resources,” said Matt Rubin, founder and CEO of True Essence. “The average consumer doesn’t recognize the immense strain our global food chain is under to provide endless choice and supply of fresh foods, despite seasonality and unreliable variables like climate change or the global pandemic we’re still living through. With True Essence technology, we are realizing a future of food that is flavorful, accessible, nutritious, and naturally shelf stable.”

With the secured funding, True Essence will acquire necessary equipment to expand R&D efforts, scale sales distribution of existing first-to-market products including SoChatti chocolate and True Essence Fruit Nectars, and dedicate the necessary resources to securing and supporting platform partners launching True Essence solutions and products into the market.

“True Essence demonstrated throughout the innovation cycle that its platform technology can revolutionize food storage and preservation without the typical flavor and shelf-life sacrifices,” said Mark Gramelspacher, entrepreneur-in-residence at Elevate Ventures. “We believe this technology will create new uses for food while solving some very large problems facing today’s global food supply chain.”

Organic juice bar, restaurant and food company Greenleaf Foods Inc. is the company’s first secured licensing partner. Utilizing True Essence Flavor Symmetry technology, which removes water from fresh foods making them naturally shelf stable and inexpensive to transport and store, while preserving and protecting flavor, Greenleaf is piloting a 100% organic, shelf stable fruit and vegetable juice packet that when reconstituted becomes a fresh pressed juice.

“At Greenleaf we’re committed to making and serving food that is not only good for your body, but also good for our planet,” said Greenleaf Foods Inc. founder Garret Flynn. “Striking that balance in this industry is typically very difficult and extremely cost prohibitive. Thanks to this partnership with True Essence, we’ve been able to double down on our commitment to organic ingredients while reducing our operating costs and also providing consumers with options that are sustainably sourced, made and served. It’s really a win-win.”

True Essence’s partnership with Greenleaf Foods Inc. is just the beginning for the rapidly growing company. True Essence is currently engaging a number of other food and beverage groups in categories ranging from spirits to coffee and herbs and spices.

“The True Essence team’s groundbreaking approach to global food chain and innovation has an exciting runway with endless potential,” said Omar Robinson, an investor and one of the founding members of Sun King Brewing. “I am drawn to the unique way the team develops and launches products and technologies that will shape the future of food.”

“True Essence is trailblazing what it means to be a sustainable food company in 2021 and beyond,” said Bob Kirch, Former CEO of Caito Foods and now Managing Partner, Kirch Equity Investments, and a company board member and investor. “The company’s innovations are providing a holistic approach to a broken, unsustainable system and doing so in a way that prioritizes customer expectations for great tasting flavor.”

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