Founder of Pulp Pantry Kaitlin Mogentale opened a new chapter for her food business on Friday night after accepting an investment deal from Mark Cuban during May 6’s airing of “Shark Tank.”
Cuban offered $500,000 for a 17% stake in the business, slightly different from Mogentale’s request of a 10% stake. Nonetheless, she accepted the deal. Cuban has major investments in the food industry, from companies like Mrs. Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli to Pan’s Mushroom Jerky.
“Mark Cuban has invested in this space. He knows how to help brands that are our stage and size. He is going to be such an asset to have on our team.” Mogentale stated after accepting his offer.
Pulp Pantry is a Los-Angeles-based brand that manufactures tortilla chips made from vegetable juice processor waste. Things like kale and celery scraps are combined with chia sees, cassava, and okara in order to produce a chip-like product. Okara is a byproduct of soy milk manufacturing.
“We take the thousands of pounds of organic produce that would otherwise go unloved every single week and upcycle them into a line of real veggie chips that are made from, you guessed it, real, fresh vegetables. Not corn, not potato starch, and certainly not grains, for that matter,” Mogentale told the board of investors.
Alongside Pulp Pantry’s success on Friday a Boston-based cactus juice brand called “Pricklee” also accepted a deal. Co-founders and pharmacists Kun Yang and Mohammed Hassoun were at the studio to try and sell their product to the investors.
“Growing up in Lebanon, my grandma used to make it from the prickly pear. The actual pulp that’s in there, she used to juice that, remove the seeds, remove the spines from the outside, and we used to drink that as kids growing up.” Hassoun told the panel his mother’s juice is what inspired him to turn the product into a business.
Even with the slight uncertainty from investors however, Barbara Corcoran laid forth an offer of $200,000 for a 5% stake, which the pair accepted.
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