Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford

#110 Raising Funds For Your CPG Business.

Chelsea Ford Season 10 Episode 110

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0:00 | 48:19

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What happens when you’re not from the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, you’ve managed to bag $1M dollars in investment (I know right!) and you want to scale a big food business? You move to the other side of the world and participate in an accelerator program, lean heavily into everything you can learn and source as many contacts you can to grow your business fast and go on to land 200 retailers in just 12 months.

That’s what happened to Veronica Fil, former CEO of Grounded Foods Co. and her partner and Creative Director, Shaun Quade. 

In 2020 they landed in New York City with their world’s first plant-based cheese that Shaun had created from hemp by isolating hemp protein. For the next four years, with Veronica leading their business to phenomenal success, she pitched to 100’s (and we mean 100’s) of more potential investors and they did land more millions of dollars in investment.

In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, you’ll hear Veronica talk about all those investor pitches. She also speaks about managing the two highest costs; manufacturing and logistics and she highlights the struggles many brand owners face when surprised with all the other costs associated with retailing many don’t know about, like slotting fees and trade spend.

Listen to find out:

🧀 What Veronica did when their company was growing 20% month on month.
🧀 What it was like pitching to 100’s and 100’s of investors.
🧀 How Grounded Foods was a cool lifestyle brand by design and how that was achieved.
🧀 Veronica’s #1 piece of advice for CPG brand owners wanting real scale. You'll be surprised.

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Season 17 with NFTC

Season 17, out now, is brought to you by NFTC – The Natural Foods Trading Company.

If you're a growing food brand navigating that tricky middle phase—scaling up, maybe landing your first major retailer, figuring out how to buy smarter—NFTC is worth knowing about.

They're a mid-tier ingredient supplier specialising in natural wholefoods: nuts, dried fruits, herbs, spices, seeds, and more. Small enough to offer lower minimums and genuine flexibility, but backed by serious sourcing capability and a team that actually knows its range inside out.

Think of them as the ingredient partner that grows with you—not one you'll outgrow.

Check them out at nftc.com.au