SPOKANE, WASH. — Spiceology, Inc., a privately held spice company, raised $4.7 million in a Series A funding round led by retail and grocery executive Ty Bennet, with participation from the Cowles Co., Kickstart Funds III & IV and a collection of angel investors.
The Spokane, Wash.-based startup also announced the addition of Roger Landrum, senior vice president of global supply chain and operations. Mr. Landrum joins the company from Litehouse, Inc., a manufacturer of fresh salad dressings and herbs, where he was senior director of supply chain, risk management and procurement. Before that, he was director of procurement at Conagra Brands, Inc. for 12 years and a founding member of the company’s strategic sourcing department.
He will be tasked with driving operations at the company, which currently is focused on increasing production capacity.
Spiceology launched in 2013 with a line of innovative spice blends and rubs, including Black & Blue, a blend of Cajun blackening spice and blue cheese, and Greek Freak, a rub featuring herbs, dried onion, sun-dried tomato, chili pepper and orange peel powder. It currently offers more than 300 premium spices, herbs, salts, chilies, blends, confections and fruit and vegetable powders, along with modernist ingredients like activated charcoal, arrowroot, ice cream stabilizer and soy lecithin. The products are sold direct to consumers and chefs across North America.
Spiceology will use the funds from its latest round to bring process automation to its SpiceLab facility, where its blends are formulated and packaged into containers with its trademarked “Periodic Table of Flavor” packaging. It also plans to bolster sales and marketing efforts.
“Spiceology’s formula is focusing on quality and innovation at scale,” said Chip Overstreet, president and chief executive officer. “This capital injection, and the addition of world-class talent like Roger, will help us continue to scale and get our products into the hands of more chefs and consumers in the United States and around the world.”
Mr. Bennet, founder and former CEO of strategic merchandising company Jacent, will join Spiceology’s board of directors.
“I have been an investor in Spiceology since the early days and had the privilege of watching the company elevate above the thousands of small spice purveyors in the market,” he said. “I look forward to bringing my retail and grocery experience to the table to help Spiceology continue to delight customers and find new ways of meeting customers where they shop.”
