Dive Brief:
- Chickpea pasta producer Banza raised $1.3 million in its first seed round following a year of significant retail expansion and sales growth.
- "Compared to a serving of traditional pasta, Banza has two times the protein, four times the fiber, almost half as many net carbs and a much lower glycemic index," according to Project NOSH.
- These attributes could be key to Banza's success in a pasta industry that has seen falling sales over the past few years.
Dive Insight:
That a dried pasta product could be growing from two to 1,700 stores in a year may seem hard to believe, especially considering dried pasta sales in North America fell by 6% between 2009 and 2014, according to Euromonitor.
Banza's foundation as a chickpea product situates it among rising consumer trends, focusing on low-carb and gluten-free foods and consuming more protein. Chickpeas made a strong showing at this year's Summer Fancy Food Show.
Banza co-founder Brian Rudolph told NOSH that longer term, "our ambitions are extremely large. We want to change the way people think about pasta. We want to do for pasta what Chobani did for yogurt."