Jay Z just invested $1 million in a black-owned vegan cookie company called Partake Foods. It’s also dope because it is based in New Jersey.
Partake was founded in 2016 by the former Coca-Cola’s national sales director, Denise Woodard. This is a big upside because investors might be unsure of the market for vegan cookies but if someone with that much sales experience is sure to know a lot about potential markets.
It didn’t start out easy for Woodard; after launching the company, she had to sell cookies out of her car for 6 months while delivering daily demos for store managers and consumers.
Currently, Partake Food products are in 300 stores with Woodard commenting to Black Enterprise, ““We expect to finish this year with a new pack offering and in over 1,000 stores. We are so excited to collaborate with the MVP and Factory teams, as they both bring a wealth of knowledge in brand building and scaling consumer companies.” That’s a long intelligent sentence…another good sign.
Woodard said she would use Hova’s investment to expand the brand and her employees. Other investors include The FactoryBackstage Capital, SoFi Ventures, and Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officers of Beyond Meat.