Odyssey, a mushroom-based useful vitality beverage maker, raised one other $6 million in an fairness funding to offer it $14 million in complete funding since launching its first drink two years in the past.
Odyssey’s merchandise faucet into the well being advantages of Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps mushrooms to provide a drink that mixes an vitality increase with 2,750 milligrams of the mushrooms to supply cognitive readability and focus.
Lion’s Mane, particularly, was proven to positively impression cognitive operate and temper in younger adults, according to a 2023 National Institutes of Health pilot study.
Scott Frohman, founder and CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Odyssey, first discovered about the advantages of sure mushrooms from a good friend making a mushroom powder to combine in drinks.
“I began including it to my espresso, and I noticed that all the things was extra clear,” he informed TechCrunch. “The most effective half was once I started working, I noticed that I didn’t want that second cup of espresso. On prime of that, I simply felt I used to be simply extra current and was in a position to leap to my work.”
Nevertheless, Frohman didn’t precisely like how the powder affected the style and texture of the drinks, and most well-liked an vitality drink supply, so he started engaged on Odyssey in 2021. Immediately, the corporate has 11 SKUs, together with flavors like Ardour Fruit Orange/Mango, Dragon Fruit Lemonade and Blackberry Lemon Twist.
The vitality within the drinks come from a mixture of L-Theanine, ginseng and inexperienced tea caffeine. And there’s much less added sugar to assist reduce “the jitters” and sugar crashes usually related to conventional vitality drinks, Frohman stated. For many who need much more of a caffeine increase, the corporate not too long ago launched the Odyssey 222 line with 222 milligrams of caffeine along with the mushrooms.
Over 5,000 shops, together with Publix, CVS, GNC, Erewhon, 7-Eleven, Thrive Market, Wegmans and Bristol Farms carry Odyssey merchandise. Frohman didn’t present progress metrics, however did say the corporate is seeing gross sales choose up when it comes to three to 5 cans per week per SKU being offered.
Progress within the useful beverage trade accelerated lately as shoppers more and more regarded for more healthy meals. The global functional soda category is expected to be valued at $208 billion by 2027. That’s impressed new manufacturers to emerge and enticed some venture capitalists to invest within the sector.
Throughout this time, we noticed manufacturers like more healthy soda firms Poppi and Olipop seize capital in 2022, whereas The Ryl Company raised $6.7 million in early 2023 for its line of useful ready-to-drink tea.
Odyssey additionally joins a protracted checklist of firms leveraging mushrooms and mycelium, the basis of the mushroom, to make all the things from alternative proteins to leather-like materials to constructing supplies. Corporations like Infinite Roots are even rising mushrooms for commercialization functions.
“Because the timing is little doubt proper, mycelium can win over shoppers with style, dietary, useful, scalable and impact-related advantages,” stated PeakBridge CTO Maya Schushan Orgad in a review of mycelium trends.
In the meantime, Odyssey’s new funding spherical contains strategic investor Richard Laver from Rocket Beverage Group, who joins a gaggle of present stakeholders contributing 50% of the whole raised quantity.
Frohman plans to allocate the capital towards stock to maintain distribution going and hiring within the areas of gross sales and advertising.
“We don’t see this as only a product, however an entire motion,” Frohman stated.
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