Dive Brief:
- Bandar Foods, maker of Indian snacks and condiments, has closed a $2 million Series Seed funding round.
- Investors include ACP, AccelFoods, Volta Global, and the Wharton School of Business vice dean of entrepreneurship, Karl Ulrich.
- Bandar is a recent graduate of AccelFoods, a food industry accelerator.
Dive Insight:
Whether a major manufacturer would acquire a company that creates products in such a specific niche is less certain. Snacks are a thriving segment and have been disruptive enough to start new categories. Ethnic flavors have also become more popular for manufacturers of all sizes to embrace, in response to consumer demands for more exotic tastes.
But Bandar's mission, "to introduce delicious Indian flavors to everyday eating occasions," according to cofounder Lalit Kalani, may not resonate with major manufacturers enough to lead to an acquisition. The product must prove its appeal to a wider audience for it to attract major food companies.
Bandar has taken traditional Indian flavors and turned them into snacks, like Naan chips. By making these flavors more accessible in a snack format, this could be the key for Bandar to get on major manufacturers' radar.