From Bean to Buyout: Nukoko’s Cocoa-Free Chocolate Story

Everyone says it: Food tech startups are slow, expensive, and risky. Tastes are fickle. If you build it, they may NOT come. Or so we've been told.

This is the true story of three founders who proved everyone wrong.

Nukoko was conceived with the mission to create 100% cocoa-free chocolate for the next generation. They turned a food-system failure into a palatable, scalable solution and sold their startup to Döhler, a world-leading flavor, formulation, and manufacturing house in record time. It marks one of the first acquisitions in the alternative chocolate space globally, and it came less than three years after first funding. I sat down with co-founders Kit Tomlinson and Ross Newton to discuss the journey from lab bench to landmark exit.

Repeat founders saw market need

DEBORAH: Chocolate has always been my favorite, and I know I'm not alone. What first led you to chocolate, and why did you decide it should be improved?

KIT: We also love chocolate. We have been in chocolate for years. Prior to Nukoko, Ross and I ran another chocolate business here in the UK. We made and sold chocolate in major supermarkets. We loved it.

ROSS: I had a schooling in the world of chocolate from an early age. My grandfather and father manufactured equipment for chocolate makers, so I grew up around chocolate factories in Germany and the UK.

KIT: While we were running that chocolate business, commodity prices swung wildly. Chocolate demand is ever increasing, emerging markets are buying more, and there's a supply crisis looming. We saw an opportunity, sold that business, and started Nukoko.

The dream team

DEBORAH: The two of you teamed up with Professor David Salt, a recognized scientist in the field. How did the three of you come to work together? What did each of you add?

ROSS: Kit and I aren't scientists. We recognized there was a problem and knew we needed leading expertise to solve it. We looked around globally and found Professor David Salt - genuinely one of the world's leading scientists in plant biology who was excited to "jump on the roller coaster" that was Nukoko.

KIT: David is not just an esteemed professor - he's hands-on, he runs experiments himself and is an incredible communicator who loves plant science. Every day was a learning day. That made the whole journey fantastic.

Light bulb moment

DEBORAH: What did you discover or believe that most people thought was wrong or sounded crazy?

KIT: Ross and I were fascinated by the idea that chocolate is a recipe that evokes emotion-you associate it with birthdays, parties, even happiness. We asked: can you replace problem ingredients but keep those same feelings? Most people thought that was crazy. But we were adamant there had to be a way.

ROSS: Professor David Salt told us early on: beans around the world could share a commonality with Cocoa beans, - If fermentation works on a cocoa bean, it could work on other beans. That was our light bulb moment: you could get a similar effect from a different bean.

From insight and iteration to formulation, flavor, and (market) fit

DEBORAH: Take us from that insight to your first prototype.

ROSS: We set up a lab in Guildford with David and our first hire. We quickly did small-scale R&D in early fermentation work on the fava bean and found it affected flavor positively. We had something that worked, was different, and interesting to the market.

KIT: We had a leaderboard of legumes, if you will, and tested a broad portfolio of feedstocks against key criteria: Where do they grow? How resilient are they? What do they taste like? What's the input cost? The real insight came from daily tasting sessions. We'd have samples coming out of the lab every day and spend an hour tasting, iterating, seeing what worked. That constant feedback showed us fava bean was the winner.

DEBORAH: Daily chocolate tastings sound wonderful by the way. Tell me more about fava beans. Not everybody knows about them.

ROSS: Fava beans have been in human consumption for thousands of years. Most people have eaten them whether they know it or not. They're popular in vegetarian foods, including alternative meat companies. They are high in protein, affordable, and abundant.

KIT: They're also resilient. Farmers can grow them on second-tier soil with far less fertilizer, and they grow in most regions of the world: Europe, Middle East, Africa, the Americas. That mattered to us. A truly sustainable solution can't displace one feedstock for another; it needs a crop that exists everywhere.

DEBORAH: The advantages stack up: fava is harvested twice a year while cacao trees take 3 to 5 years to produce. They're climate friendly and can be grown everywhere. No regulatory approval is needed, they are a fraction of the cost and have a low, stable commodity price. Plus, fava beans have functional benefits and are already in the food chain. But none of it matters if it doesn't taste like chocolate. You tasted your formulations daily. What does Nukoko taste like?

ROSS: We can say it's great, but if you haven't tasted it, you won't know. So let's talk factually: analysis of our Nukoko powder versus traditional cocoa powder shows a 90% crossover of key flavor compounds. The color is nearly identical. Mix it with fat, sugar, and milk powder, and you get a milk chocolate analogue very similar to the chocolate you already love.

The differences come from global taste profiles - not the cocoa usually. Hershey's tastes like Hershey's because of its milk powder and process. Cadbury's distinct caramelly taste comes from different processing and inputs. So our formulation work is about tuning those core flavor compounds for different global markets.

Building fast and smart

DEBORAH: Let's talk about pivotal moments. You initially self-funded Nukoko. Then in spring 2023, you received your first check into the company from our team at SOSV New York (IndieBio New York at the time). You traveled from the south of England to work with us here in NYC. What did this change?

KIT: It gave us access to a much wider network. We got more eyeballs on what we did. Ross and I have run businesses before, but we're not so arrogant to think we know everything. Having really smart people strip our business down and give us feedback was brilliant. And we loved the pace. We loved Killer of the Week - we stole that idea and took it straight home to our team.

DEBORAH: I love Killer of the Week, where founders compete on how far they pushed their business forward each week. It says everything about you that you made it part of Nukoko. You had the ultimate killer: from first funding to scaleup to exit in under three years.

ROSS: We certainly hadn't planned to exit that quickly. But it was obvious we needed some extra help, some extra capital, and some extra input to skyrocket. The first check from SOSV is not only early; it's a big check and it massively helps your ability to go quickly. I don't know where we'd be without SOSV, in all honesty.

Scaling: A partnership done well

DEBORAH: Another pivotal moment came in October 2024, when you signed a strategic partnership with Döhler, one of the few global ingredients and flavors companies. How did it come to be?

ROSS: Döhler approached us as they were interested in the space and interested in what we were doing. It started with one good conversation. Döhler have taken their own innovations from lab to industrial scale. They know it's not a straight line from lab to shelf. In the food business, there's the CapEx question: where does the money for manufacturing come from? Our experience with our own factories, even small ones, is that they're a black hole that can suck in not just your money but your company.

We decided early on to stay CapEx-light and keep Nukoko focused on the technology and product while outsourcing manufacturing and scale-up expertise. That's where Döhler came in.

KIT: We'd studied what went wrong with other food tech businesses. The pattern we kept seeing was industrializing your own manufacturing is incredibly hard to get right, especially when competing on cost against companies with literally hundreds of years of expertise. Partnering was pragmatic. There's also trust. In the food industry, trust takes years to earn. Partnering with Döhler pushed us light years ahead with end customers.

DEBORAH: I've gone between startups and corporates for decades. When structured well, startup- corporate partnerships are powerful. But these relationships are hard to get right, so tell us: what went well, and what would you recommend to others trying the same thing?

KIT: You need people on the corporate side who truly believe in it, who understand what you're trying to do, and will fight for it. We were lucky to have quite a few people at Döhler who were genuinely excited and put in extra hours to solve scale-up problems. People in different parts of the world were testing whether it would work in their tanks. That enthusiasm made it easier to move as a team, and to believe Nukoko is in good hands.

DEBORAH: Champions are key, along with executive sponsorship. Ross, what did you see? ROSS: Symmetry. We had a small, quick-moving team, and Döhler matched it with a small core team of their own. It made it possible to move fast. Also, they're a good bunch. We get on with them, which makes all the difference in the world.

KIT: Let's be honest, the cocoa crisis gave this a real commercial push. When your large global clients are asking what solutions you have in this space, it sharpens everyone's pencils. A great team matters, but you also need that commercial pull to drive decisions, get through board meetings, and make people treat this as a long-term project.

DEBORAH: Market timing matters; Nukoko was the right solution at the right time. From there, you scaled production. Where did you start, and where did you end up?

KIT: We started with tiny lunchbox-style boxes in our lab. I still go and look at them now and again, because they remind you how far you've come over the last few years. From lunchbox to 5 litres, I thought it's the most exciting point in the world. Then 10 litres, then 25, then 100. We've now succeeded in 4,500 litre tanks, and we're going bigger. Döhler are very good at this. There's no worry about how this scales, or where in the world we take it.

What's next

DEBORAH: Is chocolate the destination or just the starting point?

KIT: You know us, Deborah. We're laser focused on chocolate and getting our ingredients to market. Nukoko powder can do everything cocoa powder can do, so drinks, spreads, and desserts are a big market out there. But chocolate first.

DEBORAH: What are you looking forward to, say five years out?

ROSS: The great thing with any startup is seeing your product out in the world. We're not a consumer brand, but our ingredients will end up in your friend's or your family's favorite snack. That's what gets us excited. Food isn't like FinTech or SaaS. It has a real emotional connection to people.

DEBORAH: I look forward to seeing your new chocolate on my grocery shelf and my plate. Thank you, Kit and Ross. Congratulations again to you, Professor David Salt, and the whole team at Nukoko and Döhler. We look forward to what's next.

Deborah Zajac is a General Partner at SOSV. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.