SnackFutures, the innovation and venture team at Mondelez International, Inc., has unveiled the nine rising snack brands participating in its third annual CoLab.

First launched in 2021, CoLab is a startup program that helps Mondelez build a portfolio of “disruptive brands and venture pipeline.” Participants will receive a 12-week curriculum of virtual and hands-on sessions as well as networking opportunities and a $20,000 grant.

For its third class, CoLab is focusing on unique brands that can enhance Mondelez’s core businesses and potentially allow the company to explore new food categories. The 2023 CoLab class participants are:

  • CoCoTerra: A chocolate company that lets people make dark, milk, and white chocolate from the comfort of their homes.
  • DreamPops: A confectionery company offering a variety of frozen pops, bites and shelf stable candy that are all plant based and clean label.
  • Freezcake: Offering small bites of cheesecakes that are prepared from scratch and dried while they’re still fresh.
  • Incredible Eats: A producer of edible spoons and straws that not only are sweet and savory but also may be used in frozen foods for about an hour.
  • Legally Addictive: Provides cracker-based cookies that come in many flavors and are topped with chocolate, handmade salted toffee.
  • Mezcla: A wide selection of plant-based snack bars.
  • New Gem: A packaged foods company that uses innovative technology to make its plant-based sandwich wraps alternatives to bread, tortillas and seaweed.
  • Steiner’s Coffee Cakes of New York: A maker of unique, gluten-free coffee cakes.
  • Whole Dough: A producer of shelf-stable cookie dough bars that are plant-based, gluten-free and vegan.

“SnackFutures’ focus is to curate a portfolio of disruptive brands that can give Mondelez International first-mover advantage on snack innovation, get us even closer to the consumer, and accelerate our financial, reputational, and cultural growth,” says Jackie Haney, head of CoLab. “CoLab is pivotal to that because it allows us to work with, learn from and nurture early-stage brands that have the potential to scale.”

Snack brands that participated in the second CoLab class include Butter James Boxes, Every Body Eat, GoNanas, Moonshot, Nunbelievable, Oat Haus, Pan’s, Popcorn for the People, Wonder Monday, and Yolélé.