Nurture Brands, Myracle Kitchen Close $3.3M Funding Round

Nurture Brands, the London-based food and beverage portfolio company behind the plant-based Myracle Kitchen brand, announced this week that it has closed a £2.5 million (around $3.3 million) funding round that will support its North American expansion.

According to general manager Adam Draper, the new funding is primarily working capital as the company seeks to build out its Myracle Kitchen line of plant-based “Mylks” and coconut snacks in the U.S. and Canadian markets. Nine months after launching via ecommerce and a limited number of coffee shops, its plant-based milks are now available in California specialty retailers like Erewhon and Lassens and are currently rolling out to Meijer stores in the Midwest.

Developed in partnership with coffee influencer James Hoffmann, Myracle Kitchen’s plant-based Mylks are intended to highlight, rather than mask, the flavor of coffee, Draper said. The low-fat, full-fat and barista edition SKUs are eachmade with a blend of coconut cream, oats, and natural oils and proteins without added emulsifiers. The brand also produces a line of Coconut Bytes sold in original, Caramel and Chocolate flavors in 3.17 oz. single-serving packs.

Investors in the round include Little Northside Ventures, an investment group run by Spiked Seltzer founder David Holmes, as well as Jax Coco coconut water founders Max and Jane Gottschalk, S-Ventures founder and CEO Scott Livingston, and Eric Bellquist. Draper noted that Holmes previously sold Spiked Seltzer to Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016 and will help craft growth strategy for Myracle Kitchen.

Formed in 2019, Nurture Brands produces several CPG brands in the U.K., including the Rebel Kitchen brand of coconut and plant-based milk products (which predates Nurture and launched in 2014), EMILY and Ape Snacks, and The Primal Pantry bars.

In January, the company acquired Jax Coco, leading to the Gottschalks participation in the investment round, Draper said. Made using Filipino coconuts, Jax Coco previously had a limited presence in the U.S. but is sold primarily in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Nurture first brought the Rebel Kitchen brand to the U.S. in 2016 with premium coconut water and plant-based smoothies, but it failed to gain traction. Draper, who joined Nurture in 2019 after the aborted U.S. launch, said that the company’s previous attempt at North American expansion was not properly supported and had outsourced much of the work, operating without a full time domestic team in place.

Myracle Kitchen is intended exclusively for North America and will serve as an umbrella brand for all Nurture product launches. While there are no immediate plans for line extensions, if the company were to bring EMILY, Ape or The Primal Pantry to the U.S. it would likely do so under the Myracle Kitchen name, Draper said.

With Myracle Kitchen now gaining placement in retail, Draper said Nurture has learned from its previous U.S. launch attempt and is aiming to build a solid foundation for the brand’s North America business. The company has set up localized manufacturing in Toronto, cutting down on import costs from England, and has built out an on-the-ground sales and marketing team. Hiring has also been a focus: since last year Nurture has added a local marketing lead, a supply chain manager, and established a broker network to help service its retail expansion, along with expanding its sales force on both coasts. Graeme Puffett, a former business unit director for U.K. frozen food maker Birds Eye, oversees all units as general manager of Nurture’s North America division since late 2020.

“We don’t see this as ‘come back,’” Draper said. “For us it’s a new brand launch because most people will be seeing us for the first time.”

Marketing efforts will include targeted social media and digital ads, as well as field marketing campaigns in its existing retailers. The U.K. business will also serve as a “back office,” he added, overseeing the strategy while supporting the expansion by reinvesting overhead revenue into the U.S. and Canada division.

Draper said the brand had booths at Natural Products Expo West 2022 and the New York Coffee Festival which has helped open discussions with multiple retail chains; the company now hopes to rapidly scale Myracle Kitchen’s brick and mortar footprint this year. The brand’s milks are also available through coffee channel distributors including Shoreline Supply Company.

However, despite the rapid growth of plant-based milks, Draper acknowledged that Myracle Kitchen is entering a crowded category in both on-premise and retail sets. The company believes its clean label products and unique blend of ingredients will provide an experience closer to dairy that will set it apart from the plethora of oat, almond and soy milks already in the U.S. market.

“It is a competitive marketplace and it is quite crowded,” he said. “But the trend in plant-based milk is going towards blends and simple, natural ingredients. The market doesn’t need another oat or soy milk when there’s already millions on the market and Myracle Kitchen offering something unique.”