Why We Exist

Gluten-free bread had one job: replace the wheat. For a long time, it didn't really do that job. It was dry, it fell apart in your hand, and eating it still left you feeling heavy, bloated, and as icky as you did before you quit gluten in the first place.

The category has genuinely improved over the past few years. It tastes better than it used to, and it holds together on the shelf in a way it never used to either. But when you look closely at what actually changed to get there, you’ll see that the wheat came out, and in its place went a cocktail of gums, starches, and stabilizers doing the same structural job gluten used to do. So the specific ingredient causing trouble changed, but for a lot of people, how their body responds to eating it didn't.

That's the gap we set out to close with PACHA. Our Bread and English Muffins have just two ingredients: sprouted buckwheat and sea salt. It's simple, real sourdough that tastes amazing and is actually nourishing. Oh, and we’re one of only 2 gluten free breads out there that’s certified organic…

It's Not Just Us

Although our personal eating habits have absolutely shaped our offering, it's clear that PACHA is part of a much bigger trend toward clean, gut-friendly ingredients. If you look at what's happening everywhere else in the grocery store right now, you'll find the same story.

36% of Americans say they're actively seeking out food for digestive health, and 41% say they want clean labels. That's not a niche preference anymore, but rather a third to a half of the country taking time at the grocery store to read the ingredient panel.

Consumers are increasingly seeking real, whole-food ingredients, and the question "how will this make me feel" is in the hearts and minds of an ever-growing segment of the American population. And that's where PACHA comes in.

We've been busy. Here's the highlights (more detail after that!).

In 2025 we made MASSIVE improvements to our tortilla recipe, adding psyllium husk for better pliability and durability, and relaunched the new formulation at MOM's and Erewhon. These tortillas are now TRULY the most functional and delicious GF option on the market!

The outside world is taking notice too.

Sprouted buckwheat and sea salt. That's the entire ingredient list for our Original Bread and English Muffins. Every other flavor starts from that same two-ingredient base, with a few organic herbs or seeds added in.

Our Original English Muffins have 4.5g of fiber and 5.4g of protein in every serving, and neither number is a formula. Most brands hit their nutrition targets by adding some processed element: a fiber blend, a resistant-starch ingredient like tapioca or potato starch, sometimes a protein isolate. We don't add anything. Everything on our nutrition panel comes from the buckwheat itself.

If you want the deeper story on why buckwheat, why we sprout and ferment it the slow way, and how it’s truly the best bread for your gut, it's all laid out on our Better-for-You Bread Guide (https://livepacha.com/pages/better-for-you-bread-guide).

We hear it in reviews, over and over, almost word for word:

The Data: Proof It's Working

We showed above that we’ve increased distribution a LOT since we launched our last Wefunder campaign. Our English Muffins are winning on velocity, not just distribution. Our Original moves $19.46 per store per week, faster than any other major gluten-free brand, ahead of Glutino at $18.94, and well ahead of Food For Life's and O'Doughs' gluten-free lines. We just took the #1 spot in the Natural Channel this quarter, and the part we're most proud of is that we're the only major brand still growing: our run-rate is up roughly 20% annualized against the trailing year, while Food For Life, Glutino, and O'Doughs are all flat over that same stretch. PACHA is gaining market share, but also seems to be building the category itself, as consumers discover an English Muffin they're actually excited to eat.

People rediscovering a product or even an entire category they'd written off is exactly what we watch for when we're deciding where to put R&D energy. We're seeing real, similar opportunity in a few other corners of the gluten-free aisle right now, and we've got genuinely exciting ideas in the pipeline to go after it. I'm not going to lay out specifics here. Some of what we're working on is a real competitive advantage precisely because our competitors don't know about it yet, and this public page isn’t the right place to announce it! But we want you to know that the pattern we just showed you with English Muffins, real demand hiding behind a category people gave up on, is the same pattern we're chasing next.

The Data: Margin Improvements

The margin jump we showed you earlier isn't a one-time bump – it’s actually just the beginning of our margin improvement backed by a real capital plan.

Our gross margin climbed from an average of 19% in 2025 to 26% in the second quarter of 2026, and that improvement is coming mostly from the inside: better production management, tighter yield control, and real operational discipline at our own facility, the kind you only get from doing the unglamorous work. Directing focus away from e-commerce and into our strongest channel, retail, helped here too.

We're not done, either. We have a clear path past 30% and into the 40%+ range, anchored by a new flow-wrap packaging line for our bread and English Muffins. Funding these improvements will actually increase profitability immediately (even while we finance the). This shift is already underway, and it's projected to save real money in labor and raw materials every month while extending shelf life at the same time.

Market Opportunity

Here's how we think about the market opportunity, and we want to be straightforward about it rather than oversell you on a growth story we don't need.

Combined, the US bread and tortilla category is worth roughly $60 to $70 billion a year, and Gluten Free makes up about $733M of that. Based on SPINS data in the Natural Channel (where we actually compete today) the gluten-free bread category has been roughly flat over the past year. No real tailwind. And that's exactly why what we've done matters: PACHA is up well over 200% year-over-year in that same flat category, and we just cracked the top 8 gluten-free bread brands by dollar sales, out of over 33 brands fighting for the same shelf. We're not riding a rising tide. We're taking share directly from a crowded, mature field.

That's a better bet than a growth story, honestly. It means our results don't depend on a market projection playing out. They're already happening, in a category that isn't doing us any favors.

If the broader market does grow the way outside analysts project, that's additional upside on top of a strategy that already works without it. The gluten-free bread market, specifically the refrigerated and frozen format we compete in, is projected to grow from $733 million in 2024 to $1.73 billion by 2034. We already hold the cleanest label on that shelf, so if that growth shows up, we're positioned to capture more than our share of it.

If the $1.2 billion price tag that PepsiCo paid for Siete is any indication of the market trends there will be a lot of acquisitions coming down the pipe in the clean label gluten-free category.

Purpose-Driven Business

Here's where we get to the heart of why we do any of this.

Our buckwheat comes from regenerative farms. We source it through a regenerative partnership with Field Theory, run by farmer John Strofus, and that partnership has converted over 1,200 acres and counting from conventional to regenerative practices.

Buckwheat is a nitrogen-fixing cover crop. It holds soil in place between growing seasons, adds nitrogen back into the ground naturally, feeds pollinators through its flowers, and suppresses weeds well enough that our partner farms can cut back on herbicide use. At the end of its cycle, it tills back into the earth and becomes part of next season's soil. It's verified by the Soil & Climate Initiative, an independent body that checks actual farm-level outcomes, soil health, cover cropping, reduced tillage, not a marketing claim we get to make ourselves.

We hold ourselves to the same standard off the farm. This year we became a founding signatory of the Purpose Pledge, one of 16 companies held to real, publicly tracked commitments rather than a badge we get to award ourselves. The pledge covers 10 accountability areas, including living wages, regenerative sourcing, and waste reduction, and we will report progress against it publicly for the next nine years. Two commitments worth naming specifically: we'll be getting our Zero Waste certification, and (though we already pay 25% above California Minimum Wage) we're committed to paying a living wage across the company by 2033.

If part of why you invest anywhere is wanting your money to go toward something you actually believe in, this is that. Investing in PACHA is a direct way to put your dollars behind a food system that's better for people and the planet. It’s not the main reason, but, we wanted to be sure you know your dollars are going towards creating a better world for ALL of us!

Founding Story: PACHA started when Maddie & Adam partnered with Trilogy Sanctuary, a beloved San Diego plant-based restaurant and yoga studio owned by our founding investors and board members, Joe and Leila Caldera. They put up the funds to get us off the ground because they couldn't find a gluten-free bread good enough to serve their own guests. That's who's been in this with us since day one – and we haven’t taken VC money yet in large part because of the incredible network of believers we have built in partnership with Trilogy!

Road Ahead

We're building toward EBITDA-positive operations by EOY 2027, a target that got a lot more realistic once the margin gains above kicked in. Every dollar raised in this round helps fund the next stretch of that plan.

We're not done innovating, either. This isn't the end of what we're building. There's more coming, and I'll tell you about it the second it's ready to share.

Forward-looking projections are still just that: not guarantees.

The Ask

Here's where you come in.

We're targeting $400,000 this round. $350,000 goes straight to the single highest-return piece of our automation plan: a new flow-wrap packaging line for our bread and English Muffins. The rest supports general working capital.

Ownership units are $11.50 each for early birds, and $12.50 after that. This isn't a bet on an idea. It's a company already on shelves at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and hundreds of stores nationwide, with the growth numbers to back it up. Every dollar you put in goes directly toward getting more of our product into more hands, more efficiently.

PACHA is growing fast, fueled by a vision of food that's clean, regenerative, and radically inclusive, food that actually welcomes everyone to the table. Your investment helps us scale that vision, replacing ultra-processed, wasteful products with real nourishment for people and the planet.

Let's build it together.