The Planting Hope

What The Planting Hope does

The Planting Hope Company Inc. is a FoodTech company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois (with Canadian incorporation in British Columbia) that develops, markets, and distributes plant-based food and beverage products through four brands: Hope and Sesame® sesamemilk and Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice® veggie rice, Mozaics™ real veggie chips, and Veggicopia® veggie snacks. Its core technology centers on proprietary formulations — notably the first commercialized sesamemilk globally, produced using upcycled sesame pulp from oil extraction and delivering 8g of complete protein per serving — and on RightRice, a 90%-vegetable grain alternative delivering 10g of complete protein per serving. The company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (MYLK), OTCQB (MYLKF), and Frankfurt (J94) following its November 2021 IPO.

The company generates revenue through a multi-channel distribution strategy spanning retail grocery (Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger, Loblaw, Walmart, Publix, Wegmans, and others totaling over 50,000 distribution points), foodservice distribution (UNFI, KeHE, Dot Foods, Baldor Specialty Foods reaching an additional 30,000+ locations), direct foodservice accounts (CAVA Mediterranean Restaurants, university cafés including the University of Chicago, independent coffee shops), and direct-to-consumer e-commerce (plantinghopebrands.com, Amazon, Walmart.com, Thrive Market, QVC appearances). Pricing follows standard unit-pricing models through retail and wholesale channels. Customer segments include health-conscious consumers (with explicit Gen Z/Gen Alpha targeting), natural/organic grocery chains, conventional grocers, and foodservice operators.

The business is in a distressed turnaround posture as of mid-2024. FY2022 revenue reached a record $12.2M USD ($16.7M CAD) and Q1 2023 revenue reached a record $3.2M USD, but the company received a Management Cease Trade Order in May 2024, announced a debt reorganization, and in June 2024 launched a strategic review to position itself for future growth and profitability. Stock prices (CAD $0.01, USD near zero) and recurring dilutive financings (C$10M IPO, C$7M bought deal, multiple convertible debenture placements, $1M USD loan) indicate ongoing capital constraints despite a broad brand portfolio and award-winning products.

Name

The Planting Hope

Legal name

The Planting Hope Company Inc.

Website

https://plantinghopecompany.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Planting Hope Company is a publicly traded FoodTech company that develops, markets, and distributes plant-based food and beverage products across four brands (Hope and Sesame sesamemilk, RightRice, Mozaics, Veggicopia) through retail grocery, foodservice, and e-commerce channels in North America and select Asian markets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Plant-based Foods

NAICS

Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing (3114)

SIC

Food And Kindred Products (2000)

akta.pro primary industry

Plant-Based Prepared Meals & Convenience Foods Manufacturing (AFAKAGAL)

Keywords

• Plant-based foods
• Plant-based milk
• Sesamemilk products
• Veggie rice alternatives
• Plant-based snacks

Headquarters

HQ city

West Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Product Sales - Retail Grocery: The company generates revenue through sales of its plant-based food and beverage products to retail grocery chains including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger, Loblaw, Walmart, Wegmans, Publix, and others across North America. Products include Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks sold through major retail grocery stores.
2. Product Sales - Foodservice: Sales to foodservice operators including restaurants, cafés, university campuses, and corporate dining. Products featured on menus at CAVA Mediterranean Restaurants nationwide, university cafés, and independent coffee shops. Distribution through foodservice distributors including UNFI, KeHE, Dot Foods, and Baldor Specialty Foods.
3. E-commerce / Direct-to-Consumer: Online sales through company's plantinghopebrands.com, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Walmart.com, ThriveMarket.com, and Faire.com wholesale marketplace. QVC television appearances generating live sales to millions of viewers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Planting Hope Company develops, manufactures, and sells a portfolio of plant-based food and beverage brands. Its core offerings include Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk (plant-based milk from upcycled sesame pulp), RightRice® Veggie Rice (vegetable-based rice alternative), Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips (dry-popped vegetable chips), and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. Products are sold through grocery retail, foodservice, and e-commerce channels across North America and select international markets.

Product overview

The Planting Hope Company is a FoodTech company operating as a multi-brand portfolio of plant-based food and beverage products. The company develops, launches, and scales innovative plant-based brands including Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk and Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. The brands focus on delivering nutritious, sustainable foods that replace common foods with better alternatives, targeting the plant-based and foodservice channels across North American retailers like Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger, and CAVA restaurants.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Hope and Sesame: Sesamemilk and Sesamilk creamers - ultra-nutritious plant-based milk made from sesame seeds, sustainably produced with upcycled ingredients, available in multiple flavors including Barista Blend.
• RightRice
• Mozaics
• Veggicopia

Products and services

• Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk

Quantifiable outcome

• Sesamemilk uses 95% less water than almond milk and 75% less water than oat milk to produce
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Argo TeacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 August 2023Planting Hope acquired the assets of Argo Tea including master supplier agreements, café licenses at several universities, and inventory to expand its foodservice strategy and product offerings. The company also secured a loan of up to $1 million USD to fund operations and leverage Argo Tea's established relationships and brand in the US tea café industry. Argo Tea cafes were planning to reopen in Chicago.
• Betterer Foods, Inc. (RightRice)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 January 2022Planting Hope acquired the RightRice business assets from Betterer Foods, Inc. for $7 million. The transaction included inventory, key contracts, brands, and intellectual property, with several members of the RightRice team joining Planting Hope. This strategic move expanded Planting Hope's plant-based product portfolio and innovation capacity.
• Metropolis Coffee RoasterscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership with Metropolis Coffee, a top coffee roaster in Illinois, to distribute Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk to cafés serviced by Metropolis with their award-winning coffee beans, as well as featuring sesamemilk at Metropolis' flagship café in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.
• Baldor Specialty FoodscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorBaldor Specialty Foods, the largest foodservice distributor to restaurants and cafés in New York City, added Hope and Sesame Barista Blend Sesamemilk to its curated product assortment, reaching more than 4,600 locations across the five boroughs. Baldor services restaurants (60%, including 70+ Michelin star restaurants), retail (15%), and foodservice (25%).
• UNFI (United Natural Foods)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorUNFI is North America's premier grocery wholesaler delivering to more than 30,000 locations. UNFI added 135 new slots for Mozaics and Hope and Sesame across 15+ distribution centers, including 45 new slots for Mozaics 3.5oz, 15 new slots for Mozaics 0.75oz, and 75 new slots for Hope and Sesame shelf-stable 32oz cartons.
• KeHE DistributorscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorKeHE Distributors is the largest pure-play distributor of natural & organic, specialty, and fresh products to more than 30,000 retail locations across North America. All seven Hope and Sesame shelf-stable SKUs were selected for KeHE's exclusive 'New@KeHE' program in four divisions. Mozaics and RightRice were also featured in New@KeHE earlier in 2022.
• Dot FoodsmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDot Foods partnership expanded distribution for Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk and RightRice Veggie Rice to foodservice and wholesale customers across North America. Dot Foods is a key foodservice distribution partner.
• Loblaw Companies LimitedcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCanada's largest national grocery retailer distributing Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk in 382 stores across Canada under multiple banners including Loblaws, Fortinos, Provigo, Zehrs, Real Atlantic Superstore, Dominion, and others. First major product launch in Canadian-compliant dual-language packaging.
• EcoIdeasmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorEcoIdeas distributes Hope and Sesame Barista Blend Sesamemilk in Canada through both Eastern (Toronto area warehouse) and Western (Vancouver area warehouse) divisions along with three other Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk flavors in Canadian dual-language compliant packaging.
• CAVA Mediterranean RestaurantscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCAVA Mediterranean Restaurants features RightRice Veggie Rice on menus nationwide. Adding RightRice to bowls adds 22g+ grams of complete protein to meals. RightRice has established strategic food service distribution via CAVA and other quick service restaurants.
• FreshlymajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPlanting Hope announced partnership with leading prepared meal subscription service Freshly featuring Spanish-Style RightRice meals. Freshly is a direct-to-consumer prepared meal delivery service.
• LeBeau Excel Ltd.majorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLeBeau Excel serves as Planting Hope's retail broker of record in Canada, facilitating retail distribution partnerships with Canadian retailers including Loblaw.
• University of ChicagomajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorHope and Sesame Barista Blend Sesamemilk is now available at all three principal cafés on University of Chicago's campus: Ex Libris (Regenstein Library), Hallowed Grounds (Student Advising Center), and Harper (Harper Memorial Library). One of the top-10 ranked universities with 7,000 undergraduate and 10,000+ graduate students.

Scale indicators16 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Oatly Group AB: The leading global oat milk brand. Directly comparable as a plant-based milk alternative sold through the same natural and conventional grocery channels (Whole Foods, Kroger, Sprouts) and foodservice accounts (cafés, QSRs). Competes head-to-head with Hope and Sesame on barista applications and sustainability credentials.
• Califia Farms: Plant-based milk, creamer, and beverage brand. Directly comparable in shelf-stable and refrigerated plant milk categories where Hope and Sesame competes, with similar natural-foods and foodservice distribution and a comparable barista-positioning product line.
• Ripple Foods: Pea-protein-based plant milk positioned on high complete-protein content and sustainability. Direct peer to Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk on the complete-protein, low-water, dairy-alternative positioning and on retail distribution through Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Kroger.
• Elmhurst 1925: Plant-based milk brand made from nuts, grains, and seeds (including sesame). Direct peer to Hope and Sesame on the plant-milk-from-seeds positioning, barista applications, and natural-foods retail channel.

Broad incumbents

• SunOpta Inc. Established plant-based food and beverage company with a broad portfolio of plant milks, oat ingredients, and frozen fruit. Comparable as a public peer with operations across plant-based ingredients and packaged foods that share distribution and foodservice customers with Planting Hope.
• Danone (Silk / Alpro): Global dairy and plant-based major whose Silk and Alpro brands are the largest plant-milk incumbents in North America and Europe. Comparable as the dominant scaled competitor in the same plant-milk shelf at Whole Foods, Kroger, Sprouts, Loblaw, and Walmart where Planting Hope competes.
• Beyond Meat: Largest US plant-based meat brand with national grocery and foodservice distribution. Comparable as a high-profile public plant-based CPG that shares retailers, foodservice distributors, and consumer demographics with Planting Hope, even though the product category is meat alternatives rather than milk/grains.
• The Simply Good Foods Company: Public nutrition and snack CPG (Atkins, Quest). Comparable as a small/mid-cap public CPG peer with multiple brands, broad distribution into Kroger/Walmart/Whole Foods, and exposure to better-for-you snacking — relevant to Mozaics and Veggicopia.
• Vital Farms: Public, mission-driven food company selling pasture-raised eggs and dairy alternatives into Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger, and foodservice. Comparable as a values-led, public small-cap CPG with similar retail customers, sustainability narrative, and foodservice ambitions to Planting Hope.

Emerging players

• Good Karma Foods: Plant-based dairy alternatives (flaxmilk) and creamers. Comparable emerging plant-milk peer with a sustainability and clean-label story similar to Hope and Sesame's upcycled positioning, selling into natural and mainstream grocery channels.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/plantinghopeco

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Planting Hope