Odyssey, a mushroom-based practical vitality beverage maker, raised one other $6 million in an fairness funding to offer it $14 million in whole 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 offer cognitive readability and focus.
Lion’s Mane, specifically, 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 buddy making a mushroom powder to combine in drinks.
“I started adding it to my coffee, and I realized that everything was more clear,” he instructed 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.”
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 decrease “the jitters” and sugar crashes sometimes related to conventional vitality drinks, Frohman mentioned. For individuals who need much more of a caffeine increase, the corporate just lately 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 development metrics, however did say the corporate is seeing gross sales choose up by way of three to 5 cans per week per SKU being bought.
Progress within the practical beverage trade accelerated lately as shoppers more and more seemed 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 practical ready-to-drink tea.
Odyssey additionally joins an extended listing of firms leveraging mushrooms and mycelium, the foundation of the mushroom, to make every part from alternative proteins to leather-like materials to constructing supplies. 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,” mentioned 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 just a product, but a whole movement,” Frohman mentioned.
