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§ Private Profile · 1001 SE Water Ave Ste 450, Portland, Oregon, 97214, United States
Wild Friends Foods is a technology company.
Wild Friends Foods develops and markets clean-label, plant-protein products, specializing in non-GMO nut and seed butters. The company also offers nut butter-based breakfast items, crafting health-conscious choices by prioritizing short lists of transparent, clean ingredients for consumers seeking wholesome options.
Founded in 2011 by college roommates Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh, Wild Friends Foods originates as a passion project from their apartment. Initially named Flying Squirrel Peanut Butter, the co-founders are driven by market demand for natural, healthier alternatives within the nut butter category, building the company for over a decade.
The company's offerings serve health-conscious consumers seeking nutritious, transparent food. Wild Friends Foods dedicates itself to making food "friendly" through its commitment to clean ingredients. Its vision aims to expand its diverse plant-based products, furthering its mission to deliver accessible, wholesome choices throughout the broader food industry.
Wild Friends Foods has raised $4.0M across 1 funding round.
Wild Friends Foods has raised $4.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Wild Friends Foods has raised $4.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $4.0M Series A in November 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2018 | $4M Series A | Filipp Chebotarev | Color Capital, Flexsteel Industries Inc., Heartcore Capital, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Treble Capital, Charlie Songhurst, Dylan Field, Jaime Schmidt, Scott Belsky, Steve Hughes, Tony Robbins, CircleUp, Echo Capital, DR. Manon Sarah Littek, Portland Seed Fund | Announced |
Wild Friends Foods has raised $4.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Wild Friends Foods's investors include Filipp Chebotarev, Color Capital, Flexsteel Industries Inc., Heartcore Capital, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Treble Capital, Charlie Songhurst, Dylan Field, Jaime Schmidt, Scott Belsky, Steve Hughes.
Wild Friends Foods is not a technology company; it is a clean-label food brand specializing in all-natural nut and seed butters. Founded in 2011 by college students Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh, the company produced fun, nutritious flavors like Chocolate Coconut and Vanilla Espresso using short ingredient lists without palm oil, excess sugar, or artificial additives[1][3][5]. It served health-conscious consumers, athletes, and grocery shoppers, solving the problem of bland, overly processed nut butters by offering tasty, clean alternatives that started from a homemade recipe in a Portland apartment[1][3]. The business raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by Cambridge Companies SPG, with participation from investors like Tony Robbins, achieving over $5 million in revenue before shutting down earlier in 2025 after 13 years[1][2][5].
Wild Friends Foods began in 2011 when Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh, then 18- and 19-year-old students and athletes at the University of Oregon, grew frustrated scraping the bottom of a peanut butter jar on a rainy day and lacked motivation to bike to the store[3][5]. They experimented in their college apartment kitchen, creating their own high-nutrition nut butter—initially called Flying Squirrel Peanut Butter—that balanced taste, fun flavors, and clean ingredients[1][3][5]. Early traction came from selling at local farmers markets, securing shelf space at a natural foods grocery chain, and dropping out of college to go full-time[2][4]. Pivotal moments included rapid growth to retail expansion and a $3.5 million Series A in Portland, Oregon, but the company faced challenges like stagnant velocities at retailers like Sprouts, leading to its sale pre-COVID and eventual shutdown in 2025[1][2][3].
Wild Friends Foods operated in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space, not tech, riding the clean-label food trend toward transparent, additive-free products amid rising health and sustainability demands. Its timing capitalized on post-2010 growth in natural foods retail, with market forces like premium grocery expansion (e.g., Sprouts) favoring innovative flavors over commodity nut butters[1][3]. The company influenced the Pacific Northwest startup ecosystem by demonstrating CPG scalability from dorm-room origins to venture funding, inspiring mission-driven founders while highlighting retail velocity and capital challenges in a competitive grocery landscape[2][3][5]. Though not tech-enabled beyond basic tools like Automattic and Cloudflare for its site, it mirrored tech startup hustles in rapid iteration and consumer insights[1].
Wild Friends Foods' 13-year arc—from apartment experiment to shutdown—exposes CPG pitfalls like high distribution costs and velocity dependency, yet its lessons in resilient founding propel co-founder Keeley Tillotson to new ventures like Lumo Group as a fractional COO for mission-driven startups[2][5]. Looking ahead, expect Tillotson to shape early-stage CPG and food tech through mentorship, as clean-label trends evolve with supply chain tech and e-commerce. The brand's legacy endures in consumer love for its flavors, underscoring that even "failures" forge influential careers, tying back to its unassuming origins as a corrective to the misconception of it being a tech firm.