Artisan Tropic has since 2014 worked with Colombian regenerative cassava and plantain farmers for its line of snack foods. The company sells about $9 million worth of its products each year in supermarkets in the US.
It has until now financed its growth entirely through revenues and debt. That method of growth was appealing to Austin-based venture capital firm Dux Capital.
“We’ve made a lot of investments in family-owned companies,” Dux’s Susana Espinosa de los Reyes told ImpactAlpha. “Their risk management [is] very different from other founders” popular in venture capital circles. Dux wrote one of Artisan Tropic’s first equity checks, for $250,000, to support its product expansion in US supermarkets.
The company has so far raised $1.7 million toward its $4 million fundraising goal.
Revenues over rounds
Artisan Tropic was founded by Camilo and Margarita Guzman, two Colombian immigrants to North Carolina with a history of successful food entrepreneurship.
They previously ran Rikkos, a snack distribution company that they sold to Grupo Bimbo in 2021. For both businesses, they sought to bootstrap their growth as much as possible because they didn’t have a need or access to affordable equity.
Dux’s investment will enable Artisan to retire some of its debt and finance its rollout in US-based supermarket chain Costco, as well as expansion with Whole Foods, Sprouts and Target. Artisan is also planning to rebrand as Reelie in January.
Returns on inclusion
Artisan just now refinanced $3.5 million in debt through impact lender RSF. The company’s financials after that deal got Dux to the table.
Dux is primarily interested in companies run by underrepresented founders that often don’t get a seat at the venture capital table. “Venture capital is a really small industry. Everybody comes from the same business schools,” Espinosa de los Reyes said.
Overlooked entrepreneurial talent is “where we really see the opportunity in terms of investments and giving alpha to our LPs. That lens also resonates with its LPs, many of whom “are also immigrants or come from a family of immigrants,” she added.
