Health food start-up Wholly Moly aims to shake up the Chinese diet, swapping rice for American wholemeal oats
- The Shanghai-based start-up wants to incorporate whole grains into trendy food choices that will appeal to the younger, more health-conscious generation
- Wholly Moly hopes to expand in China’s growing health food market after it raised several million dollars of funding from C Ventures, led by Hong Kong billionaire Adrian Cheng Chi-kong
A Chinese start-up is on a mission to upend the nation’s traditional diet with North American oat after raising millions of dollars in funds.
Wholly Moly, founded in 2017, produces powdered drinks and instant porridge made of oat bran – the outer casing of oats that is rich in fibre but contains little calories – sourced from the US and Canada.
The Shanghai-based start-up said it has just raised several million dollars of Series A funding from C Ventures, a venture capital fund founded by Hong Kong billionaire Adrian Cheng Chi-kong.
The investment will help the company expand in China’s booming health food market, as it aims to transform whole grains into trendy food choices that may appeal to the younger generations and improve China’s staple diet – one that is heavily reliant on carbohydrates in the form of white rice and other refined grain.
“China has a severe lack of wholegrain food options,” said Claire Fang, founder and chief executive of Wholly Moly, in a recent interview. “We want to introduce [whole grains] into young people’s diet in a way that is easy for them to embrace.”
The market for natural health food – defined as packaged food made from natural ingredients with nutritional benefits and free from artificial additives – is forecast to expand to 184 billion yuan (US$26 billion) in value by 2022, growing at an annual rate of 12 per cent since 2017, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan.