Sweet Ride: YouTube Star Joins “Relaunched” Joyride Candy

Joyride is the latest company to lean into creator culture in a bid to bring new consumers to the brand.

YouTube star Ryan Trahan has joined the low-sugar candy company as an investor and part owner as it refocuses around the creator as chief creative officer.

Trahan announced the news to his 14.7 million subscribers on YouTube with a long form video titled “My Last Video.” With Trahan directing both flavor innovation and marketing, Joyride is “relaunching” with a four-SKU (Pink Lemonade, Blue Raspberry, Green Apple and Strawberry) line of sour strip candies.

For now, the sour strips are available on Joyride’s website in a four-flavor variety pack for $25. The company is preparing to launch nationwide in 1,300 Target stores this June.

The new partnership is the latest pivot for the better-for-you candy brand that originally launched in 2008 as Project 7. In 2022, the company raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round and rebranded as Joyride. At the time, the relaunch was focused on becoming a better-for-you, “uncommon candy.” It has released a variety of gummy and sour confections that offer about 80% less sugar than competing conventional candy.

The new sour strips will now be Joyride’s exclusive focus, with all other existing products being discontinued. Similar to past offerings, the strips are vegan, made with gut-friendly prebiotic fiber and no synthetic dyes, with allulose as its main sweetener.

Trahan is not the first YouTube sensation to make the leap into CPG. Emma Chamberlain has shown how to leverage a brand into grocery with her eponymous coffee company. In 2022, Jimmy Donaldson (better known as Mr. Beast) launched Feastables chocolate bars with former RxBar executives and went on to launch a gummy product with fellow creator Karl Jacobs.

Finding a niche in better-for-you candy has been difficult as chocolate brands like Unreal and Hershey’s-owned Lily’s dominate the category while insurgent confection brands like SmartSweets (acquired by TPG Growth Fund in 2020) and globally inspired Better Sour position to expand into more distribution channels.

Joyride appears to be staffing up as it makes another push into low-sugar candy. The company’s founder Tyler Merrick has been actively posting open jobs on LinkedIn for numerous positions including a director of operations role as well as account managers and a new CFO.