Jay-Z has invested $1 million into a Black-owned vegan cookie company.
Hov is literally about his business, so much so that he’s now putting $1 million into a Black-owned cookie business called Partake Foods through his investment company Marcy Venture Partners. Partake Foods is a three-year-old vegan company based in New Jersey.
Along with Jay on the investment side is The FactoryBackstage Capital, SoFi Ventures, and Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officers of Beyond Meat, who will also be funding the company. Denise Woodard founded Partake Foods back in 2016. The cookie company is an idea that was inspired by Woodard’s daughter’s food allergies. Woodard was determined to create her own allergy-friendly “delicious cookies that you can feel good about.”
In the beginning stages of Partake Foods, Woodard sold cookies out of her car for about six months. The mother launched Partake Foods with crowdfunding. She also performed daily demos and met with store managers and customers to get the company’s name out to the public. Now, Partake Foods can be found in over 300 stores. “We expect to finish this year with a new pack offering and in over 1,000 stores,” Woodard said according to Black Enterprise. “We are so excited to collaborate with the MVP and Factory teams, as they both bring a wealth of knowledge in brand building and scaling consumer companies.”
Partake Foods products include sprouted grain chocolate mini cookies, double chocolate chip mini cookies, sweet potato millet mini cookies, and carrot oat mini cookies. All the tasty treats are also dairy free, non-GMO, nut-free, and soy-free. Woodard plans on using that $1 million to expand the brand.
“Partake has the ingredients to build a mass market brand: compelling values, a great tasting product, and a tenacious and experienced operator,” Larry Marcus, Marcy Venture Partners co-founder, and managing director, said via a press release, according to Entrepreneur.com. “We are honored to back [Partake Founder] Denise [Woodard] and the team and help grow their business.”
