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• Maximilian Marquart is transforming food innovation through Planet A Foods, focusing on sustainable alternatives to conventional cocoa. His journey combines engineering, entrepreneurship, and a strong focus on creating scalable food solutions.
• Through ChoViva, Planet A Foods is exploring a cocoa-free approach to chocolate using plant-based ingredients and fermentation technology. The innovation aims to bring sustainability into everyday food products without compromising on taste and usability.
• As Co-Founder and CEO, Marquart is helping take Planet A Foods from an ambitious startup idea toward commercial-scale food production. His work reflects a growing movement toward more resilient and environmentally conscious food systems.

The food industry is changing, and some of the most interesting changes are happening far beyond the supermarket shelf. Consumers still want familiar tastes and everyday indulgences, but they are increasingly interested in how those products are made and what impact their production has on the planet. This shift has opened the door for food-tech entrepreneurs who are willing to rethink traditional ingredients.

Alongside his sister, Dr. Sara Marquart, Maximilian helped build Planet A Foods around a simple but ambitious idea: sustainable food should not require people to give up the foods they love. The company, founded in 2021, is developing alternatives to conventional ingredients, beginning with one of the world’s most popular treats — chocolate.

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From Engineering and Entrepreneurship to Food Innovation

Maximilian Marquart brings a background that is somewhat different from the traditional food-industry career path. Planet A Foods describes him as an accomplished engineer and multi-entrepreneur with extensive experience in the B2B sector, particularly in sales management and corporate development.

His academic background is equally technical. Y Combinator’s profile of Marquart notes that he holds a Ph.D. in Material Science and Mechanical Engineering. Before Planet A Foods, he co-founded 27pilots, where he worked with thousands of B2B startups and gained experience helping startups connect with major corporations.

That experience became important later.

Building a food-tech company is not only about creating an innovative product in a laboratory. It also involves understanding customers, developing partnerships, building manufacturing capabilities and eventually bringing the product into the real world. Marquart’s combination of technical knowledge and business experience gives him a perspective that covers both sides of that challenge.

The Beginning of Planet A Foods

Planet A Foods was founded in 2021 by Maximilian and Sara Marquart. Their complementary backgrounds became an important part of the company’s foundation.

While Maximilian brought engineering, entrepreneurship and commercial experience, Sara brought expertise in food technology, biotechnology, taste and aroma. Together, the siblings began working on a different approach to chocolate.

The motivation was connected to concerns surrounding cocoa production and the environmental pressure associated with conventional chocolate supply chains.

Rather than simply asking how chocolate could be produced more efficiently, the founders explored a bigger question:

What if chocolate-like products could be made without depending on cocoa beans?

That question eventually led to the development of ChoViva.

ChoViva: Rethinking Chocolate

ChoViva is the best-known innovation associated with Planet A Foods. Instead of using cocoa as its primary foundation, the company’s technology uses plant-based ingredients such as sunflower seeds and oats and applies processing and fermentation techniques to create a chocolate-like ingredient.

The idea is not necessarily to convince people that they should stop eating chocolate.

It is to create another option.

That distinction is important because Planet A Foods has positioned ChoViva primarily as an ingredient for the wider food industry. It can be incorporated into products such as confectionery, cereals, baked goods and ice cream.

In other words, Marquart’s vision is not simply about creating one new chocolate bar. It is about developing ingredients that can work at industrial scale.

Making Sustainability Practical

Sustainability is often discussed in broad terms, but transforming an idea into a commercially viable product is much harder.

Planet A Foods has focused on locally sourced ingredients and shorter supply chains as part of its approach. The company says ChoViva can have significantly lower CO₂ emissions than conventional chocolate, depending on the formulation and comparison.

The company’s broader mission is to create food ingredients that can reduce environmental impact while still meeting the taste and performance expectations of food manufacturers.

This is where Marquart’s business background becomes particularly relevant.

For sustainable food technology to make a meaningful difference, it needs to move beyond small-scale demonstrations. It has to work in factories, meet quality standards, fit existing manufacturing processes and make commercial sense for customers.

Planet A Foods has therefore focused strongly on scaling production and working with established food companies.

From Startup Idea to Real-World Products

The company’s progress has moved beyond research and development.

Planet A Foods has worked with companies including Griesson-de Beukelaer, Peter Kölln and Lufthansa, while ChoViva has also appeared in products available through German retail channels.

The company’s Series A funding announcement in 2024 highlighted its expansion plans and reported that its production facility had reached a capacity of around 750 kilograms of ChoViva per hour.

This is an important part of the story because scaling food technology is a very different challenge from inventing it.

A promising laboratory concept must eventually become a reliable ingredient that food manufacturers can purchase and use consistently. Marquart’s role as CEO involves helping navigate that transition.

A Different Approach to Entrepreneurship

One of the more interesting aspects of Maximilian Marquart’s journey is the combination of science and commercial thinking.

He is not approaching the food industry simply as a traditional food entrepreneur. His experience in engineering and B2B startups has influenced the way he thinks about innovation.

At Planet A Foods, the objective is not only to create something new, but to build a business capable of supplying major food companies.

In a 2024 interview with TechCrunch, Marquart described his ambition of building a next-generation food ingredient company rather than simply a consumer chocolate brand.

That approach gives Planet A Foods a wider potential horizon.

Scaling the Vision

Planet A Foods has continued to attract investment as it expands. In December 2024, TechCrunch reported that the company had raised another $30 million, with the funding intended to help increase production of its cocoa-free chocolate alternative.

The company has also continued exploring applications beyond a single product category.

More recently, industry publications reported that Planet A Foods has been expanding its presence in the confectionery sector and working on partnerships that could support broader manufacturing and market adoption.

This reflects a broader ambition: to use food technology not just to replace one ingredient, but to rethink how ingredients can be produced in a changing world.

The Role of Sara and Maximilian Marquart

The Planet A Foods story is also a story of collaboration between two siblings with different areas of expertise.

Sara Marquart serves as Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, while Maximilian serves as Co-Founder and CEO. The company describes Sara as a food technologist specializing in biotechnology, taste and aroma, while Maximilian focuses on engineering, business development and B2B growth.

Their roles complement each other.

Creating a convincing chocolate alternative requires scientific and technological expertise. Turning that innovation into a scalable company requires commercial strategy, partnerships and operational leadership.

Planet A Foods has been built around that combination.

Looking Beyond Chocolate

Although ChoViva remains the company’s most visible product, Planet A Foods has indicated that its technology platform could have applications beyond cocoa alternatives.

Its 2024 Series A announcement said the company planned to extend its fermentation platform from cocoa to other plant-based ingredients.

That could make the company increasingly relevant to the broader future-of-food movement.

Climate change, changing agricultural conditions and supply-chain challenges are forcing food companies to reconsider where ingredients come from and how they are produced. Alternative ingredients may become an increasingly important part of that transition.

For Marquart, the opportunity appears to be bigger than chocolate itself.

A Leadership Philosophy Built Around Real-World Innovation

What stands out about Maximilian Marquart’s entrepreneurial journey is the emphasis on taking an idea from concept to commercial reality.

Planet A Foods’ development shows a progression from a startup founded in 2021 to a company with production capabilities, food-industry customers, retail products and international ambitions.

In 2026, Planet A Foods continues to position itself around food-tech innovation and more resilient food systems. The company has described its approach as focusing on scalability and real-world application rather than waiting for a perfect future solution.

For Marquart, that means treating sustainability not as a marketing message but as a product-development and business challenge.

Conclusion

Dr. Maximilian Marquart’s journey with Planet A Foods represents a meeting point between engineering, entrepreneurship, food technology and sustainability.

His work demonstrates how a familiar product category can be questioned and redesigned without abandoning the experience consumers already enjoy. Through ChoViva, Planet A Foods is attempting to create a new path for chocolate-like ingredients using alternative plant-based sources and fermentation technology.

The larger lesson from Marquart’s journey is that innovation does not always mean creating something completely unfamiliar. Sometimes, it means taking something people already love and asking whether there is a smarter, more sustainable way to make it.

As the global food system continues to evolve, entrepreneurs like Maximilian Marquart are helping explore what that future could look like — one ingredient, one product and one idea at a time.