The Ugly Company targets expansion with $9M in funding

Dried fruit snack producer The Ugly Company announced that it has received $9 million in Series A funding.

The Farmersville, Calif.-based operator said it will use the funds to expand its processing capacity to meet surging demand while accelerating expansion nationwide.

The Ugly Company, whose product offerings include white nectarines, kiwis, cherries, peaches, and apricots, said its focus is to prevent food waste by upcycling “ugly fruit” and transforming it into healthy dried fruit snacks.

“This new manufacturing plant in Farmersville will allow us to process up to 64 million pounds of food waste, whereas we were previously handling fruit manufacturing manually,” Ben Moore, The Ugly Company founder and chief executive officer, told Supermarket News. “There’s so much opportunity to expand production nationally and internationally to help address food waste globally.”

Moore added that the company is “already actioning our main aim which is to expand production capacity to help meet the demand we're seeing from consumers and retailers. Part of this was the production plant that we purchased in Farmersville which will allow us to drastically increase this capacity, as well as additional machinery.” 

The Ugly Company reported that in 2022 it prevented more than 2.17 million pounds of food waste by upcycling, and its 2023 objective is to “turn 3 million pounds of perfectly good fruit, which otherwise would've been tossed or fed to cattle, into dried fruit.” 

Company snacks are available in more than 380 Sprouts locations nationwide, along with select REI, Whole Foods, and Hy-Vee stores, and will be sold in Kroger banners that include Ralphs, Fred Meyer, QFC, King Soopers, and Fry's, later this year on the West Coast.

“We still have plenty of room to grow our retail partnerships and get products on shelves nationwide,” Moore said. “Enhancing our production capabilities will only increase our ability to scale.”  

The funding round was led by Sun Valley Packing, a Reedley, Calif.-based fruit grower and distributor, and Austin, Texas-based investment firm Value Creation Strategies. Musician Justin Timberlake and investment firm Valley Ag Capital Holdings also participated in the round.