Today chef/entrepreneur David Chang and his team announced they had raised $17.5 million in growth funding for his packaged goods brand, Momofuku Goods.
The company, which sells “a line of restaurant-grade pantry essentials,” was founded in 2019 and spun out of Momofuku a year later. According to the announcement, the funding will be used to expand Momofuku Goods’ product offerings and support its growing operations.
Chang’s initial success hawking Chili Crunch is no doubt one reason investors saw potential in the brand. When released in April 2020, Chang’s spicy add-to-everything sauce (author pro tip: try a dollop in vanilla yogurt) created a 20,000-person-long waiting list. Chang began to add to the product portfolio in 2021, adding air-dried noodles which have since sold more than 5 million servings of noodles to date.
“We spent a decade testing and developing our pantry essentials, ensuring that they were up to the standards we uphold in our restaurants,” said Chang. “With this investment, I’m looking forward to bringing even more flavor to home cooks’ kitchens.”
This type of move into packaged goods is part of a broader trend among chefs with big followings looking to capitalize on their brand equity in new and interesting ways, particularly after the arrival of COVID. Chang (who technically dipped his toe into the pantry goods pool before the arrival of COVID) is particularly well-positioned to cash in on a line of pantry essentials given his unique but often relatively simple takes on Asian food.
While they may not have the same celebrity chef cachet as Chang, the sister team behind the Omsom brand has shown how successful the Asian meal “starter” CPG business can be. Omsom started offering its sauce starters back in 2019 through a DTC model and can now be found in Target and Whole Foods.
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