Banza Closes $7.5 Million Series A Fundraising Round

Innovative chickpea pasta company Banza announced the close of a $7.5 million Series A fundraising round this August, led by Beechwood Capital, with participation from Strand Equity Partners, RSE Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst. The investment follows two years of growth in which Banza has expanded from roughly 1,700 to 5,000 retailers.

Founded by brothers Brian and Scott Rudolph, who were selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2015 with Endeavor Detroit, Banza is a food innovation company with the mission to take the foods people love and make them better, by using more nutritious ingredients. Banza’s first product is a pasta made from chickpeas – with double the protein, four times the fiber and nearly half the net carbs of traditional pasta. Along with the funding, Banza announced the launch of six new pasta shapes: angel hair, cavatappi, linguine, wheels, ziti and rigatoni.

Banza has received considerable media attention – including this New York Times article, and most recently, a feature on Good Morning America – and is positioning itself for significant scale-up growth. The products are currently sold throughout the US in retailers including Target, Eataly, Jewel-Osco, The Fresh Market, Costco and Sprouts. This year, Banza was part of the inaugural class of the Chobani Food Incubator.