Bright Greens offers frozen smoothie cubes in four flavors. Consumers do not need blenders for this. They simply add hot water to the frozen cubes and shake.
US frozen smoothie start-up Bright Greens has raised $2 million in seed funding led by eighteen94 capital, the venture capital fund of the Kellogg Co. The investment arm sealed the deal with support from Blu Venture Investors. The capital will be used to expand the Bright Greens team, further product development and boost sales and marketing.
Founded in 2015, Bright Greens offers frozen smoothie cubes in four flavors i.e. Bright Blueberry, Mintergreen, Peaches and Green and Pineapolis flavors. Consumers do not need blenders for this. They simply add hot water to the frozen cubes and shake.
According to a news source, this investment comes at a time when sales for Kellogg’s U.S. morning food business which books $3 billion annually slipped 2% last year. As the consumption patterns for people are changing, innovations continue to intensify in the industry. Kellogg earlier this year also invested in Kuli Kuli which makes plant-based powders that can be used as smoothies as well as superfood bars. Kellogg’s bet on Bright Greens and Kuli Kuli might prove savvy as the consumers do not have to undergo the arduous process of blending in order to make a smoothie at home.
Bright Greens and Kellogg were paired together through CircleUp, a web-based platform that allows consumer-focused startups to raise funding from investors. Founder Rory Eakin says relationships like these can benefit a big corporation because while Kellogg and others won’t see an immediate sales boost, investments in startups can potentially result in multi-year or even multi-decade growth if those newer food categories become adopted broadly.
“Many of these large consumer packaged companies are highly dependent on legacy brands that aren’t showing top line growth,” Eakin said to Fortune. “Bright Greens is an innovation that would be difficult to approve internally, but Kellogg wants to win in breakfast and they know healthy snacks are trending. Bright Greens is a fit for their growth plans,” Eakin added.
