Qoa convinces investors

The Munich-based start-up Qoa has convinced Cherry and Ecosia as backers. The founders want to produce chocolate loade without cocoa.

Munich-based start-up Qoa is developing a chocolate product that contains no cocoa. Now the company has announced it has raised six million US dollars from investors for the idea. Leading the round is early-stage investor Cherry Ventures. Also investing are investment firms Fifty Years, Nucleus Capital, Tet Ventures, Trellis Road, Pioneer Fund and the recently launched climate fund WorldFund.

The startup sees a problem in global chocolate consumption. According to the report, each person consumes nine kilograms of the sweet food every year. This requires the production of around five million tonnes of cocoa. In the last decade, millions of hectares of rainforest have been cleared for cocoa plantations. The scientists and siblings Max and Sara Marquart therefore founded Qoa in 2021 to solve the problem.

Qoa claims to produce the world's first completely cocoa-free chocolate. Instead of cocoa, the company uses by-products from the food industry, for example from oat or grain production, which are fermented with special microorganisms and then gently roasted.

Qoa claims to be able to mimic the taste and texture of chocolate using this process. The product is vegan and is said to be ten times more sustainable than conventional chocolate.