Tony’s Chocolonely secures additional funding

Tony’s Chocolonely secures an additional €20m funding commitment to accelerate its mission of ending exploitation in the cocoa industry.

Following a successful year of rapid growth and strong progress on its mission, Tony’s Chocolonely has raised an additional €20m of capital from its existing shareholders to accelerate the delivery of its mission. The money will be used to fund its rapid growth in multiple markets and the growth of Tony’s Open Chain (its business-to-business ethical bean sourcing company). More bars and beans sold means more beans bought at a living income price, so more positive impact on the lives of cocoa farmers.

The full funding round is subject to regulatory approval in the Netherlands. As part of this round, a few existing shareholders will sell a small percentage of their stake. The revised shareholding percentages, following completion of the funding round, are outlined below.

Douglas Lamont, the Chief Chocolonely commented:

“This investment will help us accelerate our progress towards our mission of ending exploitation in the cocoa industry. The funding will be used to support the rapid global growth we are delivering in both Tony’s Chocolonely, our chocolate business, and Tony’s Open Chain, our global business-to-business ethical bean trading company. I am delighted that all the funding was raised from within our existing shareholder base, who we know are all committed to supporting our long-term mission. With this new investment, with our governance structure and with our recently introduced Mission Lock we will all remain fully focused and committed to delivering on our mission to end exploitation in the cocoa industry.”

Notes to shareholding table:
Whilst Verlinvest already held the majority of the voting shares prior to this transaction, the transaction is subject to Competition Authority approval in the Netherlands as a result of Verlinvest (a Belgium based investment company) increasing its shareholding.

Jam Jar is the investment company, run by the former innocent drinks founders.

Genuine Chocolate is the Holding company of the former CEO, Henk Jan Beltman.

About Tony’s Chocolonely
Tony’s Chocolonely is an impact company that makes chocolate. Tony’s Chocolonely's mission is to end exploitation in the cocoa industry. Not just for their own chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide.

The company was founded in 2005 by 3 journalists from the Dutch TV show ‘Keuringsdienst van Waarde’ after they discovered that the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers were buying cocoa from plantations that used child labour and modern slavery.

Since then, Tony’s Chocolonely has dedicated its efforts to raising awareness of and eliminating inequality in the chocolate industry. Tony’s Chocolonely leads by example, building direct, long-term relationships with cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, paying them a higher price and working together to solve the underlying causes of modern slavery and child labour.

Tony’s Chocolonely wants to inspire the industry as a whole to pay a living income price for all cocoa and eradicate child labour and modern slavery from the industry. They believe that being a better business should be the norm, not the exception. Tony’s Chocolonely is now one of the fastest growing Chocolate companies in the world as it expands beyond its home market in the Netherlands, with rapid growth in the UK, the US, Germany and many more markets. Tony’s Open Chain is a business to business company enabling other companies sourcing cocoa to buy their cocoa with Tony’s five sourcing principles applied, a number of large retail and consumer brands now source their cocoa through Tony’s Open Chain including Albert Heijn, Aldi, Ben & Jerrys and Huel.

Tony’s Chocolonely is a B-Corp and Fairtrade-certified.

For more information:

​​​​​​​press@tonyschocolonely.com