World’s First Sesame Milk Brand, Canada’s Planting Hope, Goes Public on TSX Venture Exchange

Canadian plant-based food company and sesame milk manufacturer The Planting Hope Co. has completed its initial public offering (IPO) in Canada, selling 22.5 million shares at $0.40 apiece. These shares are now trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the stock ticker “MYLK,” according to an official news release from the company.

The Planting Hope Co. says its flagship product Hope and Sesame is the world’s first commercialized sesame milk and offers more nutritional and environmental benefits than found in either animal-based milk or other plant-based kinds of milk such as those made with almonds, oat, or pea.

Planting Hope is also an all-female-led and managed company. According to the official news release, it is is “one of the first” on any listed exchange in Canada and one of few globally to have an all-female Board and C-suite.  

Sesame seed: a nutritional powerhouse

The company’s flagship brand, Hope and Sesame, gets its core nutrition from sesame seeds and took more than four years to develop, according to The Planting Hope Co. 

“We’ve cracked the code on plant milk with our flagship sesame milk – super nutritious, with more protein than almond and oat milk,” Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-Founder of Planting Hope, said in a statement. 

Once sesame seeds are pressed for oil, the company uses the rest of the seed to make the milk. Each serving of Hope and Sesame contains 8 grams of protein as well as 30% more calcium than dairy milk. The company says its product contains eight times the protein in most almond and nut milk and double the protein in most oat milk.

The company says plant-based dairy is projected to reach upwards of $62 billion globally by 2030, with plant milk representing 75% of that market. Currently, however, no other commercial versions of sesame milk exist within the plant-based milk sector.

Plant-based and planet friendly

Apart from aiming for nutrition, the other factor The Planting Hope Co. strives for is a more sustainable plant-based milk option for consumers. 

Almond milk, for example, is notorious for its high water footprint. A study from the University of Oxford found that it takes 74 liters of water — the equivalent of a typical shower — to produce a 200 ml glass of almond milk. While this is less than dairy’s 120 ml, it’s still considerably more than the water needed for oat or soy milk. 

The Planting Hope Co. says its sesame milk uses 95% less water than almond milk and 75% less than oat milk to produce. A big reason for this is that sesame is a drought-tolerant plant because of its extensive root system and is able to grow well in hot, dry areas.

Scaling sesame milk

Hope and Sesame is currently available at major supermarkets including Sprouts, Kroger, and Whole Foods stores in Canada and through Amazon online. 

Planting Hope also runs two additional brands: a veggie snack line called Mozaics and a dip range of products called Veggicopia. All three product lines are meant to target the “flexitarian” consumers looking to cut back on or cut out animal-based proteins from their diets. 

Financing from the IPO will enable the company to launch new products as well as scale significantly, perhaps helping sesame milk break into the mainstream as another option on the growing list of plant-based beverages. 

Lead image courtesy of The Planting Hope Co.