Magic Spoon Raises $85 Million And Hits Target Shelves Nationwide
After three years in ecommerce, Magic Spoons grain-free, low-sugar cereals are spilling into retail.
The company announced today its top three SKUs – Fruity, Cocoa and Peanut Butter – are rolling out exclusively to Target stores nationwide following the close of a star-studded, $85 million capital raise.
The round was led by HighPost Capital with participation from Siddhi Capital, Coefficient Capital, Constellation Capital, Carter Comstock, and more. The brand also secured investment from a group of celebrities including Shakira, Russell Westbrook, Halsey, The Chainsmokers, Amy Schumer, Odell Beckham Jr. and Nasir “Nas” Jones.
“We’ve been getting to know HighPost for well over a year now, and beyond getting along well with them on a personal level, they share our vision for what success looks like, and are fully aligned with our chosen path to get there over the coming years,” said Gabi Lewis, co-founder of Magic Spoon. “The celebrity investors are all true consumers of the brand – so we’re excited to have such amazing and well-known individuals as genuine ambassadors and fans.”
In 2019, Magic Spoon closed a $5 million round after only being on the market for five months. At the time, Lewis said a brick and mortar launch would not happen in the immediate future, but noted the brand had received plenty of interest from retailers. Now, that future is in view and the cereals will soon roll out to over 1,350 Target stores, priced at $9.99 per box.
Magic Spoon has emerged as an early player in keto-focused cereals, aiming to reinvigorate a category packed with high sugar, unhealthy products aimed mainly at children. Brands like Love Grown and Kashi have since followed suit, launching their own versions of “Cereal 2.0.”
According to Lewis, the brand’s initial D2C model was essential to its early growth as it took on and established a presence in the “tired” cereal category. Now he believes the business is “beyond” ready to accelerate and that Target’s history of launching D2C brands at retail makes its brick-and-mortar debut a “true partnership.”
“We’ll be leveraging our D2C expertise to drive trial in-stores; they’ll be supporting the launch in various ways in store,” Lewis explained. “We have a handful of additional exciting retail partnerships coming up later this year and next too, and in all cases we’ll be leaning into making sure the partnerships are home-runs.”
Magic Spoon cereals contain up to 14 grams of protein and 4 grams of carbs per serving, depending on the SKU. The product also taps timely consumer demands with its callouts for low sugar, and no added sugar, gluten, soy and artificial ingredients. The full lineup includes flavors like Cinnamon Roll, Frosted, Blueberry Muffin, Maple Waffle and Cookies & Cream.
Despite its narrow channel focus, Magic Spoon has not shied away from experimentation. In addition to building out an 8 SKU cereal lineup, last year the brand launched limited edition cereal bars in two flavors, Cookies & Cream and Cocoa Peanut Butter, which will be joining its permanent lineup later this month.
Lewis said this capital will help enable the brand to execute against this “true inflection point” in its growth over the next few years as it moves into physical sales channels for the first time and transitions operations to support an omnichannel strategy.
“We want to make sure we can fully execute on that transition, and that means continuing to invest in building out a world-class team, brand-building, product development, and supply chain,” said Lewis. “On top of that, we’re of course entering a period of economic uncertainty, and it’s important to us that we can take a long term view on growing this business and weather any short term storms.”