Neutral Foods, a Portland OR-based carbon neutral food company, raised $12M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation form Global Brain, its CVC partners Kirin Holdings Company, Norinchukin Bank, and Craig Shapiro. This close follows two seed rounds totaling approximately $8m, including a round led by David Adelman’s Darco Capital of celebrity investors such as NBA stars LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Tobias Harris and musicians John Legend and Questlove.
The company intends to use the funds to continue expansion into Whole Foods Market and Sprouts stores nationwide and Target locations on the West Coast.
Led by CEO Marcus Lovell Smith, Neutral Foods offers carbon neutral dairy products for retail, food service, and ingredient needs and intends to broaden its impact with additional agricultural foods. This capital raise follows Neutral’s continued expansion into Whole Foods Market and Sprouts stores nationwide and Target locations on the West Coast. In addition, the company’s products are also available at regional and independent grocers such as Central Market (Texas), Earth Fare (Southeast), Erewhon (SoCal), Nugget Market (Norcal), and Haggen, a division of Albertsons in the Northwest. Neutral is distributed nationally by United Natural Foods Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) and KeHE.
The company debuted nationally in 2021 with organic milk products, which are now available in more than 2,000 grocery stores from coast to coast.