WHY WE INVESTED: RIVALZ
- Simmone Seymour
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
We are thrilled to welcome Rivalz to the Capitalize VC portfolio. Founded by a world-class team of food scientists, AI researchers, and seasoned CPG operators, Rivalz is the first company to apply AI to the food extruder — creating high-protein, low-glycemic snacks that don't ask consumers to choose between taste and nutrition. Welcome to the future of snacking.
A $1 Trillion Problem Hidden in Plain Sight
Walk into any grocery store and roughly 40%-60% of the snacks you see on the shelves was made using a technology developed in the 1930s: the food extruder. The extruder heats and forces ingredients through a die to create the expanded, crunchy shapes we associate with chips, puffs, and cereals. It is the backbone of a $1 trillion global industry — and it has a serious problem.
The extrusion process inherently favors high-carbohydrate, high-fat, high-sodium ingredients. It actively works against high-protein, low-glycemic formulations. The result? Decades of ultra-processed foods engineered for addictiveness rather than nutrition. The consequences are well-documented: rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and malnutrition — a 50-year public health crisis baked directly into our food supply.
The "functional food" wave of the last decade tried to solve this. Brands like Hippeas, Harvest Snaps, and MadeGood have made incremental progress — nudging protein up slightly here, reducing sodium modestly there — but they were working within the same broken equipment and process. No one had gone back to re-engineer the fundamental process itself.
Until Rivalz.
The Rivalz Solution: AI Meets the Extruder
Rivalz is the first food company to apply AI directly to the extrusion process. Rather than accepting the extruder's limitations, they built a proprietary AI tech platform — combining a rich, multi-variable data set, an AI Digital Twin, and a growing IP portfolio — to crack the code on high-protein, low-glycemic extrusion at scale.
Their AI Digital Twin simulates computational fluid dynamics (CFD), modeling fluid flow and heat transfer within the extruder to predict outcomes before a single ingredient is run through the machine. The result is faster, better, cheaper food innovation: the ability to extrude hard-to-work ingredients like high-quality plant proteins while maintaining the indulgent texture and bold flavor consumers actually want.
The output is Rivalz Stuffed Snacks: a salty snack with 8g of protein, 4g of fiber, and just 9g of net carbs per serving — vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, and low glycemic. Compared to traditional snack foods, the nutritional gap is enormous. Even when compared to functional snack peers, Rivalz still leads on every macro that matters.
Why We Invested: Rivalz
We invested in Rivalz because the problem is generational in scale, the timing couldn't be better, the technology is genuinely defensible, and the team is one of the strongest we've encountered in the food-tech space.
The team is world-class. The founding team includes former Mars Chief Innovation Officer Ralph Jerome, former Mars Chief Science Officer Harold Schmitz, UC Davis Professor and AI expert Ilias Tagkopoulos (founder of PIPA), and food-system investor Victor Friedberg (co-founder of S2G Ventures and FoodShot Global). The management team adds deep CPG execution experience from Nestlé, Kellogg's, Pepsi, Mars, Beyond Meat, and P&G. This is a rare combination: world-class food science, real AI expertise, and operators who know how to build and scale consumer brands.
The problem is massive and real. Extrusion-driven ultra-processed foods are a documented contributor to the global rise in obesity and diabetes. It's a major structural flaw in the global food supply chain, with a substantial addressable market to fix it: $1 trillion. Simultaneously, consumer behavior is shifting at an accelerating pace to favor more nutritious options. GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have pulled health and nutrition into the cultural mainstream — even consumers not on these drugs are rethinking what they eat. At the same time, demand for snacks that are nutritious and satisfying has never been higher. We look for problems that are costly and real. This one is both. Rivalz is purpose-built for this moment: the no-compromise snack for a health-conscious generation that refuses to give up flavor.
They have technology that is defensible. Rivalz holds a granted patent on High Protein Snack Compositions (#18/635,814) and is building a data flywheel that compounds with every product run. Their proprietary data set spans raw materials, formulation, process conditions, sensory attributes, and molecular composition — the kind of critical-mass data that takes years to accumulate and cannot be easily replicated. And it doesn't stop there. The more categories they enter, the more powerful the model becomes.
The traction is exceptional. Rivalz has achieved monumental growth and is now present in 1,882 retail doors — including Sprouts, Meijer, Wegmans, and Bristol Farms — alongside omnichannel distribution through Amazon, Thrive Market, and QVC. They have a high repurchase rate on Amazon, a signal that once consumers find Rivalz, they come back. Additionally, the brand has expanded distribution to K-12 schools and universities, as is a part of Pepsi's away-from-home network. This is not a brand still searching for product-market fit.
This snack brand is driving impact beyond the aisle. Rivalz isn't just building a better snack — they are building the platform to reshape what the global food supply can be. They’re working with organizations like the World Food Programme to build a more equitable and healthier food system.
The Future of Snacking
We believe AI is fundamentally changing commerce and how products are built — and Rivalz is proof that this extends to what we eat. Just as AI is reshaping retail tech, logistics, and creator tools, it is now unlocking new possibilities in the $1 trillion food manufacturing industry. Rivalz sits at this intersection: a consumer brand powered by proprietary technology, with the traction to prove shoppers like it, and the platform to scale it globally.
The snack category has needed a genuine reinvention for decades. We believe Rivalz is it — and we couldn't be more excited to partner with Peter, Erica, John, Frank, Adam, and the entire Rivalz team as they build the no-compromise future of snacking.
Welcome to the Capitalize VC family, Rivalz. We see some delicious things ahead.