USA – Vive Organic, immunity-boosting beverage company, has closed a US$13 million in Series B funding round led by Monogram Capital with participation by Cambridge Companies SPG and Powerplant Ventures that also led its earlier fundraising.

The investment comes as Vive Organic’s annual sales have been growing by 400% on average since its inception in 2015, and the overall wellness shot category continues to gain momentum amid the ongoing pandemic.

CEO and co-founder Wyatt Taubman said the Vive Organic team started raising this round in mid-March when coronavirus was declared a pandemic in the U.S.

“We’re looking to continue to lead the wellness shot category, and this funding helps us further accelerate sales, marketing and product development efforts,” Taubman told me recently.

He noted how the company decided to partner with Monogram Capital for this round because of their focus in the health-positioned CPG category.

“We’re fortunate to be selective about which investors to work with, and we were looking for relevant expertise and filing any gaps that might exist on the board level,” Taubman added. “We found they were a good fit through our fundraising process.”

Monogram Capital’s co-founder and partner Jared Stein notes how Vive Organic also provides an “efficacious solution for wellness and comfort” during the global health crisis.

“We started with making sure the product has an emotional resonance,” Stein said, “and more consumers today are looking online for a convenient fulfillment solution, and Vive sets that up incredibly well, making it a valuable part of customers’ daily routine.”

Stein anticipates COVID-19 will drive people to re-evaluate their purchasing decisions for the foreseeable future, and in turn push Monogram Capital to invest more in functional foods.

“We look for brands that have the potential to be category leaders, and the best metric is velocity on shelves. We’re also looking to invest in functional snacks made with clean ingredients … they’re fundamentally real food that is not highly processed,” he said.

Partners at Cambridge Companies SPG, Filipp Chebotarev and Polina Chebotareva, also stressed how Vive Organic has been a leader in the wellness shot sector within broader functional beverage category, and their investment firm has been a champion for the company since early 2018.

Vive Organic expects to continue its current growth momentum with a near-term net sales target of US$40 million — a sweet spot where Taubman said the company will be able to finance its own growth with limited outside capital and reach a large scale over the next 10 to 20 years.

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