Voyage Foods

Voyage Foods is an Oakland, California food-technology company that develops business-to-business ingredients intended as 1-for-1 replacements for commodity-dependent foods and drinks. Its product lines are cocoa-free chocolate positioned as a clean-label 1:1 chocolate replacement for applications such as bakery, ice cream and confectionery; bean-free coffee, described as a single-ingredient coffee alternative; and allergen-free spreads and fillings free from the top nine allergens, including peanut-free and hazelnut-free spreads. Formulations use ingredients such as sunflower seeds, chickpeas, grapeseed, buckwheat and wild rice in place of peanuts.

The company frames its products against three drivers: price volatility in global cocoa and coffee markets, climate-driven instability in crop yields, and the reported doubling of food allergies in the past decade. Products are manufactured at the company's Oakland plant, with a second facility in the US Midwest planned for later in 2024 using proceeds from its 2024 financing. Customers are reached through B2B, foodservice and retail channels, and the website offers paid sample boxes of the bean-free coffee, cocoa-free chocolate and peanut-free spread lines for prospective commercial buyers.

Founding story

CEO Adam Maxwell has said the company was founded out of a desire to use food technology to drive industry-wide change, creating more sustainable, accessible, clean-label products, with branded retail items intended from the outset as a steppingstone toward supplying ingredients inside other companies' products.

Business model

Voyage Foods sells ingredients to other food manufacturers and foodservice operators, supplying items such as chocolate coatings and allergen-free spreads for inclusion in third-party products, alongside a branded retail line of spreads. Management has described retail products as a steppingstone to the ingredient business, and global B2B distribution of the cocoa-free chocolate portfolio runs through Cargill.

Revenue comes from sales of ingredient volumes to B2B, foodservice and retail channels, including full-truckload ingredient orders to other food companies, distribution of the cocoa-free chocolate portfolio via Cargill, and direct sales of branded spreads and paid product sample boxes.

Traction

As of May 2024 the company employed about 40 people, had built a foodservice business in K-12 schools over the preceding nine months, had its branded spreads in nearly 2,000 retail stores after an October 2023 Walmart launch, and had signed Cargill as exclusive global B2B distributor for its cocoa-free chocolate portfolio. Cumulative funding was reported at $94 million across four rounds.

Latest developments

In 2024 Voyage Foods announced Cargill as exclusive B2B distributor of its cocoa-free chocolate, closed a $52 million Series A+ round, launched a B2B product partnership with Rudy's Rocky Mountain Bakery on an allergen-friendly pocket sandwich, and said it would open a Midwest manufacturing facility later that year while increasing focus on quick-service restaurants and commercial foodservice.