– Spice strategy. The best journalism often comes from topics that writers are personally passionate about—an obsession they have, or a question they can’t stop thinking about. That’s what happened for my colleague Jessica Mathews and her new Fortune story about Diaspora Co.
The 8-year-old startup now pulling in “mid-millions” per year sells high-quality spices sourced from 140 farms. Founder Sana Javeri Kadri started with turmeric, after noting its growing popularity in the U.S., and has expanded to black pepper, cardamom, spice blends, and more. Among foodies and those who care about high-quality ingredients, the brand is incredibly popular.
Jessica reached out to Javeri Kadri because she wanted to know, essentially, why and how her spices taste so good. The founder told her that most spices are indigenous to South Asia, and taste different when grown there—even compared to the same seeds, extracted and planted elsewhere.
Diaspora Co. was bootstrapped for five years, before Javeri Kadri raised a $1 million pre-seed round and then a 2024 $1.5 million seed round from a whopping 75 angel investors, from Meena Harris to the founder of Salt & Straw ice cream—a strategy that helped her set aside 35% of the company’s equity for farmers and employees.
“With the grocery venture capital world right now, you’re often selling an unprofitable product at scale and hoping that it’ll eventually become profitable,” she told Jessica. “I can’t do that for my farm partners—that’s a very short-term outlook. I want their kids to inherit their family business, and the family business to be thriving. I want our farmers to be happy,” she says.
Read the full story here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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