Banza manufactures food products made from chickpeas.
The company initially launched with a chickpea pasta product. But has expanded into rice, mac & cheese, and pizza categories. Today, Banza’s product portfolio consists of 45 SKUs.
The startup raised a total of $28.8M in funding to date, including a $20M Series B round.
Based on an estimate by VentureSource, Banza was valued at $151.1M during its last funding round.
The market for gluten-free pasta is forecasted to register a CAGR of 9.78% through 2024. And reach $1.289B by 2025.
What's next:
Banza is a part of the alternative protein meta trend.
According to CB Insights data, VC funding in alternative protein startups totaled an all-time high of $2.53B last year -— a 96% YoY increase.
And a recent survey found that 36% of consumers intend to increase their consumption of alternative protein sources in the near future.
Retail sales of plant-based meals in the US alone have grown by 25.5% over the past two years, reaching $377M in total value.
One fast-growing player in the alternative protein space is
NUGGS.
Recently rebranded as SIMULATE, the startup produces a plant-based alternative to chicken nuggets. As of mid-2020, the company reported having sold 1 million pounds of nuggets. And has raised $57M in total funding, including money from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.