The Barcelona-based startup of chocolate snacks without added sugars closes its second funding round with €3.75 million led by streamer Ibai Llanos and former footballer Gerard Piqué, who join as co-founding partners.
The Barcelona-based startup of chocolate snacks without added sugars Plesh has closed its second funding round for €3.75 million, individually led by streamer Ibai Llanos and former footballer Gerard Piqué, who also join as co-founding partners of the company. The operation was announced on Monday, according to ecosistemastartup.com.
The round includes investors who also participated in the first injection of €1 million raised in 2024: basketball players Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernández, the Boix family (owners of Noel Alimentación), the founders of Incapto, Matcha & Go and Grupo Confitería, the Mission fund (formerly known as Demium) and BStartup, the venture capital vehicle of Banco Sabadell. The company has not disclosed the identity of the other new participants or the post-money valuation.
The capital will be allocated to three fronts. The first, to open new points of sale: Plesh has just closed a distribution agreement with the Lacasa group (manufacturer of Lacasitos and Conguitos), present in 70,000 points of sale in Spain. The second, to industrialise production: manufacturing has been moved from a workshop in Taradell (Barcelona) to plants in Vilafranca del Penedès and Zaragoza, and a third factory is being certified. The third, to expand the workforce: currently, there are 8 people, and the plan is to approach 15 within a year.
Plesh was founded in 2024 by Jaume Betrian (CEO), Juan Umbert, and Adrià Colominas, who are also the owners of the agency Makeat. They design in Barcelona and outsource production to third-party factories in Catalonia (now also with a presence in Aragón). The recipe is created by Lluc Dalmau, a renowned pastry chef, and relies on plant fibres and stevia to replace sugar; according to data published by The New Barcelona Post, the formula provides 20% more prebiotic fibres and between 10% and 18% protein compared to a conventional chocolate snack.
The range includes chocolate dragees and the new Crunch Bites (protein balls coated in chocolate, available in hazelnut and Lotus biscuit versions). Betrian estimates, according to El Periódico, that these launches could quintuple current revenue, a figure that the company has not made public.
In distribution, Plesh is already in over 3,000 points of sale: chains such as Carrefour, Alcampo, Bonpreu, Ametller Origen, and Cal Fruitós, as well as convenience channels of Areas (airports and service stations). The agreement with Lacasa and the imminent entry into El Corte Inglés indicate a much larger scale jump in the coming months.
This move does not fit the classic celebrity endorsement model. Betrian defines it, in The New Barcelona Post, as a Creator Economy model: creators do not get paid for advertising, they provide capital and become co-founders. The reference cited by the CEO is clear: Hailey Bieber with Rhode, the Kardashians with SKIMS, and Luisito Comunica with Gran Malo.
"What interests me about Plesh is the possibility of building a brand in a different way. I didn't just want to reach the end to collaborate with my name, but to be part of it from the beginning and help build products that I like, as well as the brand and its community," declared Ibai Llanos.
Gerard Piqué, for his part, was already an investor in Plesh from the previous round and now takes a further step by joining the founding team. His track record with Kings League and Kosmos endorses him as a builder of entertainment platforms, not just as a famous person putting in money.
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