ReGrained

ReGrained is the leading food upcycling technology and ingredient platform. We deploy patented technology and culinary science to do more with less and improve the way we value our planet's resources.

Upcycling fights food waste by helping undervalued byproducts realize full potential as innovative food and revenue streams, like the nutritious grain used to brew beer. We are a Public Benefit Corporation that creates tangible benefits to the environment, society, and shareholders.

We have now engineered, developed and produced our commercial scale processing machinery, have partnerships in play with Food and Beverage (F&B) industry leaders like Barilla Group to bring "Powered by ReGrained" products to market, and co-founded the Upcycled Food Association. To prove our model, we launched an award-winning consumer snack brand.

With this pending round of capital, we will finish the scale-up of our plant to meet demand and build on our Intellectual Property (IP). We are raring to commercialize our innovations, accelerate sales, and fuel our growth—which will further validate our model for subsequent fundraising rounds, and ultimately achieve mission success. 

Deal terms were set by MolsonCoors Ventures (more on our strategic investors below), and we have already closed $1.5+M. We reserved this $535k WeFunder round so you can have an opportunity to level up with us one last time as the company grows.

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🍺 It all started when...

In college we learned how to make our own beer. Every 6-pack we brewed left us with 1 pound of grain. We were hauling this grain out to the dumpster until we started baking bread with it in order to sell loaves to brew for free. 

We soon realized the opportunity was much bigger: if we upcycle this grain at scale into a "flour" for sale via a partnership model with leading food companies, this new supply chain could be the foundation for a sustainable and profitable food revolution. Think the "Intel-inside" model for food. Thus, the idea for our flagship ingredient platform, ReGrained SuperGrain+®, was born. 

To overcome prior technical barriers and develop a scalable solution, we partnered with the USDA under a collaborative research agreement. Together we created ReGrained's exclusive patent-protected upcycling technology, which powers our business model and protects our market leadership position. ReGrained's technology is uniquely suited to safely, efficiently, and economically create novel upcycled ingredients like SuperGrain+.

To build demand for our ingredient platform, educate the market, generate near-term cash flow, and collect market data we launched a consumer brand of packaged goods including bars and puffs. 

🌎 + ❤️ + 💰 Our Triple Bottom Line Vision

Our vision is to grow a profitable business that reduces food waste, producing benefits for the environment and human health. 

The brewing industry in the United States alone produces tens of billions of pounds of grain each year. Upcycling just 10% of this supply into ReGrained SuperGrain+® could be a billion-dollar business and bring nutritious food that was destined to be discarded to millions of people.

Through dedicated research and development, we valorize not just brewer's "spent" grain (BSG), but also other "food waste" streams including oats from milking, pressings from juice, pomace, and more.

ReGrained’s patented food upcycling technology, is uniquely suited to safely, efficiently, and economically process "waste" streams like BSG, fruit/vegetable pulp, and other byproducts into valuable food ingredients. 

🔑 Creating SuperGrain+ From Brewer's "Spent" Grain 🌾

The 20 BILLION POUNDS per annum of BSG is our initial commercial focus.

After it has been used to brew, this grain incredible nutritional value, functional properties, and flavor. The sugars go into the beer, leaving behind plant protein (about as much an almond), dietary fiber (3.4x Whole Wheat), prebiotics, phenolic compounds, and other beneficial nutrients like iron, manganese, magnesium and others. 

With our technology, the incredible properties of this unique ingredient are commercially available for the first time. ReGrained SuperGrain+® is a premium, versatile, functional, and flavorful “flour.” 

ReGrained SuperGrain+® is a functional food that features a surprisingly impressive nutritious profile, with superior levels of protein and fiber and other nutrients with fewer calories relative to other grains:

It is also a great source of prebiotic fiber. Prebiotic fiber supports digestive health by providing food for the probiotic bacteria that live in your gut:

🤝 We Upcycle At Scale Through Global Ingredient Sales and Innovation Partnerships

Food companies hunt for novel “better for you and the planet” ingredients to create products modern consumers demand. That focus has created a robust marketplace for specialty, functional, and other value-added ingredients. ReGrained’s food upcycling platform meets this market need with a versatile, economical, and nutrient-dense innovation portfolio.

ReGrained SuperGrain+®, our flagship offering, delivers with:

• Taste: desirable sensory profile that enables diverse usage occasions across categories.
• Nutrition: high in plant protein, dietary fiber, prebiotics, minerals and micronutrients
• Functionality: Versatile. Added benefits for product developers include water holding, oil retention, binding/extending abilities.
• Value-Add: with ReGrained turn-key innovation and value-added systems, barriers to commercialization are reduced.
• Marketability: “Powered by ReGrained” co-branded products communicate a compelling and differentiated story to the end customer.
• Exclusivity: ReGrained’s patented IP enables cost effective, full cycle management of the production and supply chain unique to the industry.

We are working with a diverse and growing range of partners and prospects across many applications such as:

As an ingredient and development partner, we upcycle at scale by activating co-branded, product development with many of the brands you know and love. We would list them here, but confidentiality agreements do not allow. 

SuperGrain+ is just ReGrained’s first platform. Our second platform, derived from upcycled oats rescued from milking have similar benefits, with high protein and a unique allergen-free profile. Our prototypes of this product have generated strong interest several of our large development partners. Other streams from pulp to pomace and more are in development.

🍫 We Started An Award Winning CPG Brand 🏆

We rolled out branded, consumer-facing puffs and bars, made with SuperGrain+, to build demand, educate the market, generate near-term cashflow, and collect market data. Our Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products are now available in thousands of stores and online. Our consumer brand is on track to deliver $1M in revenue in 2020 (more detail further below). 

Today’s consumers demand more from their food than everyday low prices and convenience. ReGrained SuperGrain+® is meeting this need as a nutritious, delicious better for you, and better for the planet brand.

For global food and beverage companies looking to innovate, we offer an opportunity to tap the ReGrained revolution through co-branded partnerships.

💵 Industry Leaders Have Strategically Invested 

ReGrained has raised strategic capital from Griffith Foods, MolsonCoors, and Barilla with additional operating capital from angel investors.

Our strategic investors represent stakeholder groups from supply chain through shopping cart. Each hold a minority position in the company, but deliver major value beyond the money. 

Griffith Foods is a global food science, product development, and ingredient innovation leader. For food companies around the world, Griffith Foods is the product development partner that specializes in ingredients and blends that meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Griffith Food's invested in ReGrained for strategic alignment they incorporate our offerings within their portfolio and scale industrial sales. 

Molson Coors is a one of the world's largest brewery conglomerates. For ReGrained, this represents nearly infinite global supply. TAP Ventures is their investment arm, focused on early stage entrepreneurs. They invested because they believe in our ability to build a market that will increases the value of their largest waste stream by volume, and supports their sustainability and environmental stewardship priorities. 

Barilla is a multi-national Italian food company with a number of wholly owned of brands outside the pasta category. ReGrained fits within Barilla's "Good for You. Good for The Planet." mission. We were one of their BLU1877 funds first investments, and continue to work with together on new product development and commercialization. 

We also see our strategic investors. In 2018 we conducted a record-setting equity crowdfunding campaign on MicroVentures. With over 700 consumer investors, we have democratized our capitalization in a very innovative way. We turn to this community (which you may already be a part of) for feedback, to launch new products, and generally champion our mission. Ultimately you own our success with us.

📈 Poised For Growth, 2020 Performance, Looking Ahead

We have created and demonstrated the value and consumer acceptance of a new ingredient category. ReGrained has closed this loop via the development of our patented technology solution and innovative processing methodology. We are recognized thought leaders in the space, own the tech, and are poised for stellar growth—but we aren’t looking to do it alone.

Since inception we've really been in development mode, and really only started focusing on revenue for the CPG business in 2020 with the launch of the puff. 

On the ingredient side, despite a strong pipeline, due to the nature of the long sales cycles, revenue sales won't likely be material until 2021, and then really start ramping in 2022. 

Looking ahead, by 2022 we expect ingredient sales to surpass CPG. 

💰 Fundraising Round Summary

We are actively raising several million in capital. 

Equity financing deal terms were set by MolsonCoors TAP Ventures, and we have already closed $1.53M from a mix of investors.

This $535k tranche is carved out from the capital stack to make sure our equity crowdfunding angels have an opportunity to grow with us.  

We have now engineered, developed and produced our commercial scale processing machinery. With this round, we will be able to finish our plant to meet our customer’s demand, commercialize additional ingredient streams, stay on the cutting edge of R&D, and support the growth of our CPG line. 

Appendix:

👎 More On The Food Waste Problem

The negative environmental impacts of our food supply chains are staggering. 

The single most impactful lifestyle choices we make every day are in what and how we choose to eat. According to the cross-sectoral experts that conducted Project Drawdown, shifting our diets to be less wasteful and more plant-based is the most pressing solution within our individual control.

If global food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest producer of greenhouse gases.

♻️ Food Upcycling

"Upcycling" is all about putting nutritious delicious food to its best use—feeding people. 

The Upcycled Food Association, a non-profit we cofounded recently released this formal definition:  "Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment."

The ReGrained platform uniquely creates new foods from crops that have already been cultivated, harvested, and “used.” This is truly found food—meaning that all the costs and impact have already been absorbed, yielding more from less.

​Upcycled foods are made from ingredients that would otherwise have ended up in a food waste destination. According to the Food Loss and Waste Protocol, the food waste destinations are when food ends up in places like incinerators, as animal feed, or in landfill. By avoiding these destinations, upcycled food makes better use of the energy expended in growing, transporting, and preparing that food.

Upcycled foods are value-added products: Globally, we lose around $1 trillion per year on food that is wasted or lost. Upcycled food captures that value, and leverages it to create a sustainable and resilient food system.

Upcycled foods are for human consumption: elevating food to its highest and best use.

More than half of consumers want to buy more upcycled foods. Upcycled food gives everyday people the ability to vote with their dollars to end food waste. By indicating which ingredients are upcycled, consumers know they are spending their money in a way that aligns with their values.

🌎 This is Dan, Our Founder, Outlining Our Mission on the TED Stage

🎥 This an animated short film we produced to explain upcycling in a fun, engaging way

🍕Event Recap: ReGrained X Square Pie Guys Pizza Pop-Up

🍗 Event Recap: ReGrained Chicken + Waffles Pop-Up