Plant-based organic chocolate maker Loving Earth has tapped into the loyalty of customers, hundreds of whom have helped it raise fresh funds to give the start-up a fighting chance at recovering from the pandemic.

Founded in 2007, Loving Earth, which makes vegan chocolate from unroasted cacao beans sourced from an indigenous Amazonian community, enjoyed a period of growth driven by the health food trends of the late 2000s and early 2010s. However, consolidation in the independent health food store sector, the emergence of competing products and the impact of COVID hampered the brand.

“[Co-founder Scott Fry] saw the peak of this wave that was about to break into the market, which was the raw food wave and the superfood wave,” said co-founder and creative director Martha Butler. “We started to catch the tip of that wave and rode it into the Australian market.”

For a time, demand far exceeded supply – the husband-and-wife duo were moving factories every year just to keep up with growth.

“Then the market turned on us because all the big companies got on board – Swiss and Blackmores started to bring in heaps of coconut oil and coconut products,” Butler said.

In 2016, as supermarket giants grew their own health food aisles, independent stores focused on organic and health food products began closing and consolidating, taking away a key revenue stream for Loving Earth.

“COVID was sort of the final blow,” Fry added. The company has only recently returned to profit of $80,182 – the first time in 16 months.

Loving Earth has secured a $485,006 lifeline from 307 investors through equity crowdfunding, with Fry and Butler hoping to use the funds to claw back market share in their unique pocket of the $5 billion Australian chocolate market.

The funds, raised through equity crowdfunding platform Birchal, will be split towards product innovation and marketing, with plans to “reboot” the brand, roll out a new ecommerce website, bring on new distributors and push further with exports.