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Whole cacao brand Blue Stripes has closed a $20 million Series B funding round led by Zintinus, The Hershey Company and Whole Foods Market, among others.

The US firm upcycles the entire cacao pod to make sustainable, nutritious and antioxidant-rich foods, including cacao water, granola, trail mix, whole cacao chocolate bars, chocolate covered cacao beans and dried cacao fruit.

The company’s ingredient and production approach – which utilises 70% of the fruit that is typically thrown away in the traditional chocolate making process – reduces cacao fruit waste and increases the value of the cacao fruit, which in turn creates an income increase for cocoa farmers.

The Series B capital will be used to continue to advance the company's whole cacao process technologies, develop new products, increase distribution and raise consumer awareness around the nutritional benefits of the cacao superfruit for the chocolate industry as a whole.

Blue Stripes founder, Oded Brenner, said: “For the last two decades of my career I focused on showing people the whimsical and romantic side of chocolate. In this next chapter, I am on a mission to change what happens behind the scenes of the cacao industry – reducing the negative cacao industry impact on the environment, improving the economic value cacao farmers receive for their work and sharing the incredible functional benefits that the cacao superfruit has with the world."

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