Piscataway-based Clio Snacks raises $8M in funding round

Clio Snacks closed an $8 million funding round Wednesday that President Heather Cox said will help accelerate growth through marketing and fund two upcoming innovation launches.

The funding was led by long-term investment partner Alliance Consumer Growth as well as venture capital fund AF Ventures.

Clio, a chocolate-covered greek yogurt bar with a cheesecake-like texture, is the fastest turning brand within the refrigerated bar category, according to the company. Founder Sergey Konchakovskiy invented the process to get yogurt from the yogurt cup form to its cheesecake consistency in Roselle in 2017, and growth allowed for the building of a new facility this past winter. Clio has been based out of Piscataway since the end of 2019.

“People try Clio because of its functional attributes but come back again and again because it tastes so delicious. Clio has disrupted the refrigerated bar and yogurt categories by bringing in new consumers for an indulgent snack or dessert occasion,” said Cox said in a prepared statement.

In a conversation with NJBIZ, Cox wouldn’t yet release more information about Clio’s upcoming innovation products, but said that the funding will be used to fuel consumer adoption and retail growth. Clio Bars are already in 7,800 stores nationwide.

“We have doubled the business from 2019 to 2020 and a lot of that growth has come from retailer expansion. We have new distribution deals with Whole Foods, Target and Wegmans, and we’re also experiencing rapid same-store growth. Our same-store growth is up 40 percent in the latest four weeks,” Cox said.

Currently, Clio employs 36 people, many of whom are at the Piscataway facility and others remote. Cox expects that number to climb.

“With the rapid growth we’re anticipating, we’re always evaluating how we’re going to have to expand our facility and our team, so we do anticipate a lot of growth on both of those fronts. We’re definitely growing the team to match our sales growth,” Cox said.