Local bakery Sugar Magnolia launched Brownie Bark, a gluten-free chocolate snack, in 2024. The company was one of several food businesses to make moves during the year. (BizSense file photos)
Amid the local startups that launched or introduced new products in 2024 were a cohort of budding food businesses.
And while some members of the local startup scene expanded their operations during the year, others lined up fresh investor funding to set the stage for future growth.
New businesses and products
Notable in 2024 was that several local startup food companies either launched or expanded their operations.
Sijang kicked off the year with a push to get its oil-based Garlic Chili Crunch condiment into brick-and-mortar stores. The condiment features onion, garlic, sesame seeds and Mexican chilies. Sijang, which means “market” in Korean, was originally started as a catering company a decade ago. It was relaunched as a condiment company last year.
Hot sauce company Scared Cowboy started to sell its products online in the spring, following appearances at vendors markets. Named for a co-owner’s cat Cowboy, the company sells four sauces, all with habanero pepper bases. The company’s red sauce features lemon and garlic, the orange sauce has tomato and garlic, the green sauce is made with cilantro and tomatillo and the brown sauce features tamarind and garlic.
Sugar Magnolia Breads and Baked Goods officially unveiled its Brownie Bark product in late 2024, following the company’s launch earlier in the year. The gluten-free, shelf-stable chocolate snack was pushed out to give the company a product suitable for online sales and retail stores to add to its custom cakes and baked goods.
But those food-sector up-and-comers weren’t the only local startups to launch or introduce new products in 2024.
Joe Swider and Julianna Keeling of Terravive, which launched new compostable food service products in 2024.
Compostable products company Terravive introduced new offerings like shopping bags and parchment paper in February to join its lineup of cutlery and plates. The company pitches its products as environmentally friendly alternatives to similar disposable plastic items. It developed its latest round of products in response to feedback from its customers, which include the U.S. government, universities and health care companies.
Babylon Micro-Farms expanded its product line in 2024 with the STEM Garden, a hydroponic vegetable-growing device designed to cater to classroom instruction. It’s is a smaller version of the startup’s Galleri Micro-Farm unit that rolled out in May 2022. With STEM Garden, Babylon targeted a new customer segment with a less expensive and more compact version of its original hydroponic indoor farming device, which is intended to grow food for universities, senior living facilities and corporate cafeterias.
New concepts that got their start in 2024 included Gilded Lily Designs, which installs and maintains planters at residences and businesses; mobile bar Shaken Not Spurred; and mobile pet grooming company Happy Tails RVA.
Gilded Lily Designs, which plans and installs planters, launched this year.
A couple local startups expanded into out-of-town markets this year. Naborforce, which provides on-demand companionship for seniors, moved into D.C. and Savannah in 2024, building on the company’s efforts in recent years to expand outside of Virginia. Sherah, a company that connects working moms with personal assistants to help them with errands, expanded to Alexandria.
Capital raises
A handful of local startups closed on capital raises in 2024 to fuel their operations.
Qnovia pulled in a $16 million round toward the end of the year, money the startup planned to primarily allocate toward the submission of an application to regulators to allow for the commercialization of its RespiRx nicotine inhaler in the United Kingdom. The new funding came shortly after the company got FDA approval for clinical trials of its portable smoking cessation inhaler in the United States.
Tech startup Fringe secured $6 million as the year was coming to a close. The company planned to use the funds to continue its efforts to embed with larger benefits providers and provide its fringe benefits marketplace through those organizations.
Buddy, which sells software to insurance carriers, started the year off with a $7.2 million round that closed in February. Later in the year, accounting firm Cookie Finance closed on $4.1 million to help grow its business catering to the financial needs of online content creators.