Exo is an American insect food company that manufactures

protein bar Protein bars are convenience food that contain a high proportion of protein relative to carbohydrates and fats. Despite the label focusing on protein, many mass-marketed protein bars contain more added sugar than some desserts like cookies or ...

s using cricket flour from pulverized

house cricket ''Acheta domesticus'', commonly called the house cricket, is a species of cricket most likely native to Southwestern Asia, but between 1950 and 2000 it became the standard feeder insect for the pet and research industries and spread worldwide. ...

s. The products are marketed as a good source of nutrition.

History

The company was founded by Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz in 2013, during their graduate program at the

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

campus. They first ordered 2000 crickets and worked on some of the prototype recipes from them. They later shifted to New York and worked with Kyle Connaughton, an R&D expert at the

Fat Duck The Fat Duck is a fine dining restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, England, owned by the chef Heston Blumenthal. Housed in a 16th-century building, the Fat Duck opened on 16 August 1995. Although it originally served food similar to a French bi ...

restaurant, to make a nutritious protein bar that was also appealing to the palate. Using

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, the company's founders raised $55,000 in early 2016, exceeding the initial target of $20,000. By March 2016, the company had raised a total of $5.6 million from early investors and

Series A A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

funding. Exo was acquired by Aspire Food Group in the spring of 2018. All of Aspire's in-house Aketta branded products will now become part of the Exo brand.

References

External links

* {{official, https://www.exoprotein.com Snack food manufacturers of the United States Insect food companies