Nov 23, 2020
Peekaboo Organics wins $200K for ice cream and veggies snack idea
Peekaboo Organics’ ice cream featuring hidden vegetables was recently named the grand prize winner of the Real California Milk Snackcelerator dairy snack innovation competition created by the California Milk Advisory Board and VentureFuel, according to a news release.
The competition will provide Peekaboo with $200,000 in resources and funding to bring a snack-sized version of their innovative products to market and expand the overall market for their products, according to the release. This is the second event of its kind by the California dairy industry designed to inspire ideas integrating the values of fluid milk and dairy ingredients into snacks to meet growing consumer demand and providing resources to help bring them to market.
As presented by Founder and CEO, Jessica Levison, Peekaboo’s mission is to solve the parental dilemma of getting children to consume more vegetables by putting them into a format they can’t get enough of – ice cream, according to the release. As the owner of a popular ice cream scoop shop in Miami, she turned her frozen dairy know-how into flavorful super-premium ice creams hiding a nutritious, vegetable secret. The products are currently available in pints at select retailers but Levison is looking forward to introducing the single-serve snack line and expanding distribution with Real California Milk at the core.
“Like many of our fellow startups, we confronted what seemed like insurmountable challenges this year. This win validates our innovation, our mission and our team’s hard work and resilience,” Levison said in the release. “We learned so much from this Snackcelerator experience and cannot wait to launch Peekaboo minis into the market – made with Real California Milk, of course! Much gratitude to everyone involved.”
Peekaboo is one of four innovators selected from a field of 16 sweet and savory semi-finalist competitors to present to a field of judges from the CPG, retail, venture capital and food science world representing such companies as Clorox, Mondelez, Whole Foods, CircleUp and more in a live pitch (and sample) event, according to the news release.
Above, Peekaboo Founder and CEO, Jessica Levison