Purposeful beverage startup Odyssey grabs $6M to boost up power drink enlargement
Odyssey, a mushroom-based practical power beverage maker, raised any other $6 million in an fairness funding to offer it $14 million in overall investment since launching its first drink two years in the past.
Odyssey’s merchandise faucet into the condition advantages of Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps mushrooms to put together a drink that mixes an power spice up with 2,750 milligrams of the mushrooms to serve cognitive readability and focal point.
Lion’s Mane, specifically, was once proven to definitely have an effect on cognitive serve as and temper in younger adults, according to a 2023 National Institutes of Health pilot study.
Scott Frohman, founder and CEO of Citadel Lauderdale, Florida-based Odyssey, first discovered about some great benefits of sure mushrooms from a pal creating a mushroom powder to combine in beverages.
“I started adding it to my coffee, and I realized that everything was more clear,” he advised TechCrunch. “The best part was when I got to work, I realized that I didn’t need that second cup of coffee. On top of that, I just felt I was just more present and was able to jump to my work.”
Then again, Frohman didn’t precisely like how the powder affected the style and texture of the beverages, and most popular an power drink supply, so he started operating on Odyssey in 2021. As of late, the corporate has 11 SKUs, together with flavors like Interest Fruit Orange/Mango, Dragon Fruit Lemonade and Blackberry Lemon Twist.
The power within the beverages come from a mix of L-Theanine, ginseng and inexperienced tea caffeine. And there may be much less added sugar to backup decrease “the jitters” and sugar crashes in most cases related to conventional power beverages, Frohman stated. For many who need much more of a caffeine spice up, the corporate not too long ago offered the Odyssey 222 series with 222 milligrams of caffeine along with the mushrooms.
Over 5,000 retail outlets, together with Publix, CVS, GNC, Erewhon, 7-11, Thrive Marketplace, Wegmans and Bristol Farms lift Odyssey merchandise. Frohman didn’t serve enlargement metrics, however did say the corporate is optical gross sales select up when it comes to 3 to 5 cans in line with hour in line with SKU being offered.
Expansion within the practical beverage trade speeded up in recent times as shoppers an increasing number of regarded for more healthy meals. The global functional soda category is expected to be valued at $208 billion through 2027. That’s impressed fresh manufacturers to emerge and enticed some venture capitalists to invest within the sector.
Right through this hour, we noticed manufacturers like more healthy soda firms Poppi and Olipop seize capital in 2022, day The Ryl Company raised $6.7 million in early 2023 for its series of practical ready-to-drink tea.
Odyssey additionally joins an extended listing of businesses leveraging mushrooms and mycelium, the foundation of the mushroom, to produce the whole lot from alternative proteins to leather-like materials to construction fabrics. Firms like Infinite Roots are even rising mushrooms for commercialization functions.
“As the timing is no doubt right, mycelium can win over consumers with taste, nutritional, functional, scalable and impact-related benefits,” stated PeakBridge CTO Maya Schushan Orgad in a review of mycelium trends.
In the meantime, Odyssey’s fresh investment spherical contains strategic investor Richard Laver from Rocket Beverage Crew, who joins a gaggle of present stakeholders contributing 50% of the overall raised quantity.
Frohman plans to allocate the capital towards stock to book distribution going and hiring within the fields of gross sales and advertising.
“We don’t see this as just a product, but a whole movement,” Frohman stated.
