NEW YORK — Chocolate ravioli dessert startup Pastazerts has experienced a few changes since speaking with Food Entrepreneur in June. The startup has partnered with a co-manufacturer, tweaked its formulation, expanded its retail presence and initiated a crowdfunding campaign to fund the growth, said Stephanie Berwick, co-founder of Pastazerts.

“We certainly have some expenses coming up and this is our first fundraise so I thought it would be good for me to dip my toes into more of a debt round,” Berwick said.

The company, which has been bootstrapping since launching, is aiming to raise between $25,000 to $30,000. The raise will help Pastazerts fund its co-manufacturer, distribution, inventory purchasing, in-store demonstrations and upcoming trade shows, Berwick said.

“It’s a debt round (and) it’s repaid to investors with a 14% interest over 35 months,” she said. “We do have to reach that $25,000 minimum to be funded.”

Partnering with a co-manufacturer has allowed the company to move out of its commercial kitchen, which gave the founders a “limited production space.”

“We could not even fit one pallet worth of 48 cases in this commercial kitchen frozen storage,” she said. “We were really limited by the storage and we were limited by the number of hours and how long it took us to produce. It took us five minutes to produce two units.”

While partnering with the filled pasta-focused co-manufacturer has allowed the company to grow, it also has pushed the company to update its chocolate ravioli formulation to fit within the co-manufacturers specs.

“We were able to formulate our own dough that fit through our small stand mixer (and) our dough sheeter,” Berwick said. “The type of dough (we use), the way it’s formulated worked for me at self-production (but) didn’t necessarily work with the big machinery at the co-manufacturer. So, we had to step back and allow the co-man to help us understand what that formulation needs to look like.”

The chocolate ravioli’s formulation, which is a thin layer of chocolate dough formulated with organic cocoa powder and combines a dark chocolate flavor with a cream cheese filling, required small, minor concessions, Berwick said.

The formulation now features less cocoa powder, refined sugar instead of powdered sugar and has less chocolate in the dough.

“We’ve expanded the size of the ravioli so it’s double the size now, so that also means double the filling, which I think most people really want,” Berwick said. “(We’re) not using powdered sugar because there’s some clumping agents in them.”

Distribution also has picked up for the company since partnering with the co-manufacturer. The plan, Berwick said, is to start in local New York retailers and then expand nationally now that the company’s production can be handled by its co-manufacturer.

“We’re also pushing into foodservice,” she said. “We think the product is really well aligned for chefs to put their own twist on it (Pastazerts) and put it on their own menus. Foodservice is a big factor for us and our sales channels in 2025.”

Partnering with the co-manufacturer has also meant pivoting as a business owner. Berwick is now focused on fulfilling purchase orders, conducting in-store demonstrations and sales.