Protein snacks are getting real.
What’s happening: WILDE, maker of chicken-derived chips, secured $40M from S2G Investments to fuel retail expansion and bring new protein-packed snacks to market.
New chew. WILDE’s proprietary production crisps chicken breast, egg whites, and bone broth into chips and crackers, packing 10+ grams of protein per serving — ~5x more than traditional, carb-heavy salty snacks.
Founded in 2015, it has benefited from consumer proteinmaxxing, reaching 30K+ retailers nationwide and notching $100M+ in sales last year. With a new 130K-sq-ft facility expanding capacity sixfold, it’s eyeing a bigger slice of the $5.5B meat snack market.
Meat market. Atop the US food guide and untouched by the whey shortage, meat snacks are a growth market. But, as incumbents cede share to cleaner brands, sourcing is the next battleground.
Selling 2M meat sticks daily and projecting ~$900M in ’26 sales, Chomps recently entered breakfast, while Archer secured $100M to scale up. Equip and Lineage build bars with beef-derived ingredients, while UK-based WILDE rival The Curators courts women buyers.
Punchline: As the entire grocery store becomes protein-washed, ingredient quality is a bigger buying factor. Trading fortified formulas for whole foods, WILDE is bringing more substance to the snack aisle.
