Mondelez makes second investment in food startup

For the second time in a little over a month, global snack maker Mondelez International has made a minority investment in a food-related startup company.

The Deerfield-based company best known for its Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates brands said Thursday it has invested in Hu Master Holdings. The New York City-based parent company of Hu Products and Hu Kitchen is a producer of organic, paleo, and vegan chocolates, coffee powders, and sells apparel products and merchandise, according to a Bloomberg company overview.

The investment in Hu Master Holdings comes a little more than a month after the company announced it would invest in Uplift Food, a early-stage startup focusing on prebiotic foods. Also last month, Mondelez made an investment in The Hatchery Chicago, a nonprofit food business incubator based in the Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Mondelez officials did not give financial amounts in either investment, which they note are part of the company's SnackFutures innovation and venture hub. SnackFutures is focused on finding new snack products for the company.

Hu Holdings was founded in 2012 as a family business by Jason H. Karp and siblings Jordan Brown and Jessica (Brown) Karp. It began as a high-end kitchen and market in New York City focused on paleo-inspired foods, according to Mondelez. The success of Hu Kitchen prompted the company to expand into vegan and paleo-friendly chocolate products, free of refined sugar, soy, dairy and gluten. Officials said Hu has developed into a producer of premium vegan/paleo-friendly snack products with a devoted following.

"The Hu brand sits at the convergence of key growing consumer trends," said Tim Cofer, Mondelez executive vice president and chief growth officer. "Building on its initial success in chocolate, we believe there's an exciting opportunity to continue expanding the Hu proposition into a broad health-focused snacking platform across categories."

Cofer added Hu has an in-house test kitchen and insights lab, which gives the company "a unique ability to quickly test and learn."

Jason Karp added the partnership will allow Hu to grow and reach more people "in a better and broader way than on our own."