Proper

The PROPER approach to healthier snacking 

Invested £7m in 2018. Exited in 2021.

PROPER was founded in 2011 by Cassandra Stavrou (now MBE) and business partner Ryan Kohn. Propercorn, as it was known originally, was focused on brilliantly flavoured popcorn. While working in advertising, Cassandra Stavrou noticed she and her colleagues would suffer a mid-afternoon slump. But finding a healthy yet delicious snack was a real challenge. She set about finding a solution and began by experimenting with flavoured popcorn, using a cement mixer in her mum’s house.

She soon teamed up with Ryan Kohn, a family friend and former sustainable property development director, and sought early advice and mentorship from Richard Reed, one of the innocent co-founders.

After more than a year searching for a UK manufacturer and scraping together the necessary start-up funds, Stavrou and Kohn launched Propercorn in 2011. The breakthrough came when they secured Google’s London headquarters café as their first customer. The popcorn quickly became the café’s most popular snack, standing out among 48 alternatives.

In 2016, we invested £7m alongside JamJar, the investment vehicle for the three Innocent founders. This was the first major injection of funds in its five years of business. At that time, they were selling more than three million bags of its award-winning popcorn per month, and they were forecast to top £15m that year. The investment was to support the brand’s growth ambitions as consumers continue to seek healthier and more interesting snacks.

Over our five-year journey with the team the company grew to £24m of revenue, being stocked in 10 countries and selling five million bags a month. They became the driving force behind the nation’s £250m ‘better for you’ snack category. They introduced kids’ products, microwave popcorn and bars. In 2019 we worked with them to rebrand as PROPER, marking their move into the wider snacking market with their healthier alternative to the Dorito, Proper Chips.

In January 2021,  we exited Proper with Exponent Private Equity taking a majority stake, creating a partnership with lentil chip brand Eat Real to solidify their positions as healthy snacking brand legends.