Khloud secures $15 million as protein demand keeps growing
Category: Startups
By Irfan
Published: 2026-06-01T08:24:34.000Z
Khloud, the protein popcorn company that Khloe Kardashian founded, has pulled in another $15 million, according to a securities filing that surfaced in late may. The new money pushes the brand's total funding to roughly $27 million, and the plan behind it is fairly straightforward. Khloud wants to be on more shelves, in more cities, and in front of more shoppers who have decided that protein belongs in almost everything they eat, including their afternoon snack.
Khloud, the protein popcorn brand that Khloe Kardashian founded, has raised another $15 million, according to a securities filing that turned up in late may. The fresh capital lifts the company's total funding to roughly $27 million, and the goal behind it is simple enough. Khloud wants to be on more shelves, in more cities, and in front of more shoppers who now treat protein as something that belongs in every part of their day, including the snack they reach for between meetings. The story starts a couple of years back. Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner began raising money for the venture in 2024, and the brand launched in 2025 with one product, a popcorn coated in a protein and seasoning blend the company calls khloud dust. That dust delivers around seven grams of protein per serving, which is essentially the whole pitch. The popcorn uses whole grain corn and leans on whey protein and olive oil instead of the seed oils a growing group of buyers has decided to avoid. That lets Khloud speak to two audiences at once, the protein chasers and the clean label crowd, without choosing between them. The new money is meant to fund distribution. Khloud has been pushing toward major national retailers, and reporting around the raise points to wider placement across chains like Target, Walmart and Starbucks. For a snack company that placement is the entire game, since shelf space at big retailers is what separates a real business from a celebrity curiosity that fades after one season. The marketing has been just as deliberate. Rather than chasing everyone, Khloud has aimed at women, seeding product into sorority houses and handing it to social media creators who do the talking. That reads less like a guess and more like a response to the data, since women have been outpacing men in the drive to eat more protein. The broader market helps too, with analysts expecting the protein space to clear $50 billion by 2031. Backers including K5 Global, Serena Ventures, William Morris Endeavor and Shrug Capital have kept the checks coming. For the Middle East and North Africa, a brand like Khloud lands in fertile ground. Protein and functional snacks are the fastest growing format across the region, expanding at a double digit pace in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where roughly 65 percent of the population is under 30 and fitness culture is booming. Shoppers in the gulf increasingly buy dietary supplements and weekly protein shakes, and clean label sourcing has shifted from a niche ask to a baseline expectation. The catch is supply, since the region imports most of its healthy snacks and uses the UAE and Saudi Arabia as distribution hubs, while price sensitive markets like Egypt lean toward smaller packs and private label. For an import driven brand, that mix is both an opening and a test.