Health food startup, Partake Foods scores big with “Hov”

“I’m not a business man, I’m a business man”- Sean “Jay Z” Carter.

The business mogul is once again, making incredible moves for the culture. Most recently Jay Z’s firm Marcy Venture Partners recently invested $1 million into health food startup, Partake Foods. Other prominent investments included “rising VC star” Arlan Hamilton’s firm, Backstage Capital,

SoFI Ventures and Chuck Muth, Beyond Meat’s Chief Growth Officer.

The New Jersey based company creates gluten-free, vegan & allergy friendly products. Partake Food’s product line is free of allergens such as peanut, tree nut, dairy free, egg free, soy free, non GMO, no artificial flavors nor preservative.

Partake Foods Founder, Denise Woodard learned rather quickly, that her daughter, Vivienne suffered from a number of food allergies. Researchers estimate that 32 million Americans have food allergies, including 5.6 million children under age 18. More than 170 foods have been reported to cause allergic reactions. Eight major food allergens – milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish and crustacean shellfish – are responsible for most of the serious food allergy reactions in the United States.

Equipped with this information, Denise did what any parent would do: set out to find snacks and foods that met Vivienne’s dietary needs. With no luck in finding quality, allergy free foods, Denise decided to create her own line of products.

Denise Woodard launched a Kickstarter campaign and successfully raised $30,260 to jump start her business idea. “When I left my career at Coca-Cola in 2017, I literally sold cookies out of my car for six months, demoing every day and meeting store managers and customers,” said Woodard via a press release.

The future of Partake Foods:

“Our products can now be found in over 300 stores, and we expect to finish this year with a new pack offering and in over 1,000 stores. We are so excited to collaborate with the MVP and Factory teams, as they both bring a wealth of knowledge in brand building and scaling consumer companies.” (via press release)

The key to Partake Foods success is the growing number of consumers who are adopting the plant-based lifestyle. In 2018, 92% of plant-based meals consumed in the UK were eaten by non-vegans . The number of U.S. consumers identifying as vegan grew 600% between 2014 and 2017 . Social change and its impact is what makes companies like Parktake Foods scalable. The Future is Vegan.