From popcorn and beverages to bars and snacks, this ingredient is popping up in more products as consumers increasingly reach for functional foods. Medlie/ NuttZo/ Vital Proteins/ Zeebar
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Jen Berliner remembers noticing consumers tagging her organic beverage company Medlie in Instagram posts. The images and videos showed people pouring packets of collagen into their blended vegetable drinks, mashes and shots — so she decided to make it easier for them. In what Berliner calls a "consumer-led decision," the company partnered with Whole30 to launch its Kale Avocado Protein Drink with Collagen in the summer of 2018 and on the first day it debuted, it was already a hit. "We, candidly, didn't know how it was going to do and that day remains one of our single biggest sales days ever, it has basically stayed as our No. 1 SKU ever since then, and we've introduced a number of other collagen SKUs and products," the CEO told Food Dive. "It's something that we really continue to lean into and respond to the consumer demand." But it is not just Medlie getting in on the collagen trend. The ingredient — one of the most abundant proteins in the body — is poised for growth in 2020 as more people look for greater functional health benefits in what they consume. The global collagen market is projected to reach $6.6 billion by 2025 with an annual growth rate of 6.5%, according to a new report by Grand View Research. "Everything that we're seeing on our side is certainly no signs of slow down here. We're only seeing more and more demand for collagen products." Jen Berliner
Medlie, CEO
Made popular in the U.S. in the 1980s as a pricey injectable filler to plump lips and soften lines, collagen has been finding its way into a variety of foods and beverages, from bars to salty snacks. In more recent years,  studies have shown  that ingesting collagen for several months can improve skin elasticity  and signs of aging  as well as joint , back and knee  pain. Other research, however, has said those health claims are exaggerated . So despite the increasing popularity and its reputation for health benefits, there are still many questions about its impact. "It’s definitely among the top three products people ask me about, and I believe it does hold promise in some diverse areas of medicine," Mark Moyad, director of the complementary and alternative medicine program at the University of Michigan Medical Center told WebMD . "It’s also one of the most wacky and controversial." But those questions haven't stopped collagen manufacturers from developing ingredients and integrating the product into more food and beverage as demand increases. Last year, InterGanics launched a new high-purity product, called PeptPure Collagen Peptides, and a re-engineered process that they say delivers higher levels of purity, traceability, sustainability and transparency. Felipe Chaluppe, president and CEO of InterGanics, told Food Dive collagen is still in an early stage of its lifecycle, but with more CPG companies getting into the space in the last five years, it has "exploded. " 
“It became very popular and ... everybody understands the benefits of collagen and what it does, and I think it is just going to continue to grow because more applications are coming up, more delivery systems are being developed,” he said. SkinnyPop
 
SkinnyPop, which Hershey acquired  in 2017, released a collagen popcorn last year. Chaluppe said that product caught his attention because the word collagen was so large on the package. "You couldn't really tell if they were selling popcorn with collagen or collagen with popcorn because of the packaging," he said. "It was eye-catching. " 
He said that product is an example of the evolution of consumer awareness, as well as increased availability and more delivery technologies for collagen, which signals that this ingredient will be a big part of the industry "for many, many years. " 
Kamal Elamri, co-founder of Zeebar, told Food Dive that his company’s protein bars contain the highest amount of collagen per bar in the market at 14 grams each. Elamri, who is originally from Morocco, said he noticed that bars in the U.S. had many additional and artificial ingredients so he sought to develop a bar with "a pure list of ingredients. " He wanted to combine argon oil, a popular ingredient in Morocco, with a protein to make his company's products. While researching non-dairy proteins that were good for digestion, Elamri said they came across collagen and decided to use it because of its reported positive effects on skin, joints and fighting inflammation. "We like collagen because it is a really good way to get your protein intake and to also get health benefits from it," Elamri said. "All those other protein supplements, like whey, they just have protein in it and nothing else really." He said more consumers are looking to have added benefits from their food, which is a current trend across the industry. A white paper from ingredients company Kerry found that 65% of consumers seek functional benefits from their food and drink. Medlie's Berliner said 2020 could bring more products that combine that functionality with convenience by offering more foods and drinks with collagen already infused. The ease of ready-to-drink appeals to consumers, she said, because of the convenience of not having to scoop, mix and shake collagen into products. "Something that people really love about our products is that we're delivering ... all the protein and benefits of collagen in a bottle that they can grab from the fridge and walk out the door," she said. "Everything that we're seeing on our side is certainly showing no signs of slow down here. We're only seeing more and more demand for collagen products." Follow Lillianna Byington on Twitter

Could collagen dominate food and beverage in 2020?

11, 2019 at 5:36 PM
Since its launch in 2016, Sonoma Brands’ Zupa Noma has refined its packaging, sales strategy and messaging. Still, something hasn’t quite resonated with consumers of the cold drinkable soup brand. Now they’re trying for a new name and product approach, rebranding as Medlie and launching a line of vegetable “mashes” which are vegetable blends that can be eaten as a snack or used as a spread or dip. The rebrand comes after the brand shifted to a largely direct-to-consumer model, a channel which now accounts for 85 percent of the company’s sales. The rebrand stemmed from the company’s struggle with consumer messaging, noted CEO Jen Berliner. “We wanted a brand name that could better communicate what we were hearing from our consumers about how they use the product,” Medlie CEO Jen Berliner told NOSH. “What that came down to was our products offering four servings of organic vegetables in a convenient way.”
Along with the overarching brand identity, Medlie also clarified its soup line as a beverage, calling it “drinkable veggies.” Berlinger said that research found consumers were sometimes confused by the concept of chilled soup and rather saw the line as a convenient way to get multiple servings of vegetables in a refreshing format. “With our evolution to ‘veggie drink’ we’re being much more literal about what our product is,” Berlinger said. “And most importantly, speaking the same language as our consumers.”
The name Medlie also allows the company to enter other categories, Berlinger said, which it did so at Expo West, launching veggie mashes. Available in avocado green with collagen, tomato tahini with collagen and sweet potato cinnamon, the line will launch on Medlie’s website this spring. Berlinger said that the company had found its core base of keto-, paleo- and Whole30-diet adherent customers were pulling away from bean-based hummus or creamy dips and looking for other spread alternatives that could work on toast, in salads or veggie bowls. Data supports the untapped potential of vegetable focused snacks. According a recent report by research firm Nielsen, produce snacking saw a 1.2 percent increase in dollar sales versus a year ago, and deli items with vegetables saw a 6.2 percent jump in dollar sales versus a year ago. Medlie itself saw sixty percent net revenue growth year over year in 2018. Investors are paying attention to the trend as well. Medlie was initially capitalized with an investment from Sonoma Brands itself, but raised a second round that included an outside strategic investor at the end of 2018. While an SEC filing notes the raise was $1.5 million, the brand declined to confirm the exact total. Berlinger told NOSH the strategic partner brings a “depth of experience” and a strong belief in the potential for fresh vegetable based snacks. Despite all the changes, Berlinger maintains that the potential is there, it’s just about refining the messaging
“We’re thinking of this as a broadening and opening up of opportunities for the brand rather than a pivot. The original thesis behind Zupa Noma still holds true,” Berlinger said. “While the name on the label and the statement of identity is changing, the core is staying true to who we’ve always been.”

Zupa Noma Rebrands as Medlie in Effort to ‘Broaden Opportunities’

By                         Elizabeth Crawford
After helping to pioneer the nascent drinkable soup segment, the startup Zupa Noma is ready to expand into adjacent categories with a fresh look, different name and new products. At Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim this week, Zupa Noma will refashion itself as Medlie and preview innovative products, including a new Glow Veggie Shot  and Veggie Mashes, which will become available online at the end of March and in Spring 2019 respectively. “The changes is really about broadening the brand and kind of setting ourselves up for success in the future,”​ and to better communicate what consumers love about its products and how they use them, CEO Jen Berliner told FoodNavigator-USA. “We are fortunate being predominately a direct-to-consumer business to have pretty constant two-way communication with our consumers. And what they tell us is they are picking up Zupa Noma, soon to be Medlie, because it has four servings of whole, organic vegetables that they can grab-and-go. The word soup actually doesn’t really come up in that conversation. It is not core to our value proposition,”​ she explained. Rather, she added, “for most of our consumers it is that fresh, trusted, convenient source of veggies”​ that is the foundation of all of the company’s products and “we felt like Medlie was more inclusive and broader,”​ which is important as the brand introduces products beyond drinkable soup. Beyond that, Berliner explained, that the young company landed on Medlie as the new name in part because “it is just a happy word that makes you smile,”​ but also because the company’s products “quite literally are vegetable medlies.”​
Communicating the change to consumers​
While rebranding can be exciting and good for a company’s long-term success, it also is risky because it can confuse consumers who expect one name or look and might not recognize the product after the refresh. Berliner says the brand will help bring consumers along with the change by connecting with consumers on social media, through email and through its website, which is where most of its traffic is generated. “The direct-to-consumer platform is one of the touchpoints and main ways that we interact with our consumers, and it lends itself a little better for us to directly share this information versus needing to worry about customers being on their own in the aisle of a grocery store and thinking, ‘Is this the product I am familiar with?’ We can explain everything more directly,”​ she said. A new look​
Along with the new name, the company says it also is introducing a new look that will be cohesive across all products and will continue ‘to champion the vegetables with its iconic, bold imagery.”​
Like the old packaging, the new look will feature the same line drawings of vegetable drenched in super-saturated colors, but it will have a new script and streamlined call-outs. Instead of the block lettering used for Zupa Noma, Medlie will be written in a clean cursive and the product name will appear in all caps in white font on a black flag. The products that are Whole 30 approved will continue to feature the claim front and center along with the organic description, but claims like ‘ready-to-enjoy’ and ‘superfood soup’ will be dropped in favor of calling the larger format product a ‘veggie drink.’
New products​
Along with the new look, Medlie will preview new products at Expo West, including a Whole30 Approved Glow Veggie Shot and a line of Veggie Mashes. The company first introduced its 2-ounce shots last year at Expo West, but the new line will also include 4 grams of collagen protein, in addition to the serving of vegetables and gram of fiber, Berliner said. She explained that the company decided to add collagen after it noticed its consumers on Instagram and social media squeezing a packet of collagen into their drinkable soups, shaking them up and enjoying them. While the concept was a success, the DIY approach did not lead to the experience that Medlie wanted to offer because consumers sometimes had a large chunk of collagen that didn’t break up and didn’t taste great. By combing the veggies and collagen for consumers, Medlie can ensure a smooth consistent product that tastes better but offers the same function
In addition to the new shot, Medlie is introducing a line of ‘mashes,’ which have a cauliflower-mash base and can be consumed the same way as hummus or yogurt – two products that often are avoided by Medlie’s consumers who often follow the Whole30, Keto or Paleo diets. The spoonable mashes come in small 6 ounce tubs and will be available in there flavors: Sweet Potato Cinnamon, Avocado Greens and Tomato Tahini. Drinkable soups are here to stay​
As the company expands its portfolio and changes it look, Berliner underscored that the company’s flagship drinkable veggie line will remain the same inside and continues to meet a consumer demand. “The core product line in 12 ounce bottle is not changing at all. We know that people love them, they tell us how great they feel when they drink them, and they often drink multiple every week. So, it is not by any means changing from a product perspective,”​ she said. She further explained that the “basics behind launching Zupa and drinkable soups 2.5 years ago still very much rings true. Then, as now, consumers were turning around their bottles of juice and their smoothies and realizing there was 50 grams of sugar and in the case of juice, maybe 1 gram of fiber in the whole thing.”​
The drinkable veggie line offers a better-for-you alternative to juice that is packed with fiber and nutrients and far less sugar, which is something consumer want even more today than when Zupa Noma first launched, she said. Ultimately, Berliner said, “all the changes we are undertaking are about listening to our consumers, hearing what they are saying to us and figuring out how we can better pay it back to them and set the stage for the next phase of our growth as a broader, fresh vegetable snacking platform.”​
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Zupa Noma rebrands as Medlie to better reflect its expanding portfolio of snackable vegetables

Feb. 12, 2019 at 6:36 PM
Over the past two months, investment group and incubator Sonoma Brands has seen changes to its operating team including the addition of two managing directors. Founder Jon Sebastiani told NOSH the additions are reflective of how the firm has evolved since its inception, adding both to its portfolio of investments and owned properties: marshmallow brand Smashmallow, egg brand Peckish and drinkable chilled soup brand Zupa Noma. Recently, Kevin Murphy joined the firm as a managing director. Murphy spent 13 years at Encore Capital, as one of the earliest employees of the firm. Murphy, a friend of Sebastiani’s since his Krave days, told NOSH that after departing Encore last summer, he was drawn to the operator-focused investment thesis that Sonoma offered brands. “I saw true investment capability with a building track record, but coming from different perspectives than what we normally see with a traditionally structured investment firm,” Murphy said. Joining Murphy as managing director is Brian Nicholson, who joined Sonoma as a principle in January 2018. Nicholson brought with him a focus on ecommerce, digital media and direct-to-consumer businesses, having spent five years with Stripes Group, leading the firm’s investments in Refinery29, Reformation and The Black Tux. Those digital skills will benefit not only Sonoma’s investments, which include direct-to-consumer kids meal plan Yumble, but also Sonoma’s own brands. Zupa Noma, for example, went from being sold in brick and mortar stores to an ecommerce focus. Sebastiani cited a struggle to connect and educate consumers on retail shelves as the cause for the change. Peckish has also focused on digital, as it has taken a more measured approach to its launch. The brand first entered California’s Erewhon in January before rolling out in Equinox locations in the Northeast, Whole Foods’ 365 stores and direct-to-consumer via its website. “With Peckish we’re building a different value proposition, so [we’re going] much slower,” Sebastiani said. “Peckish was a brand that we’re going to slowly bleed out into the marketplace into very influential accounts.”
Peckish’s rollout comes as the brand has also undergone staffing changes. In December, Peckish CEO and Sonoma Brands Chief Brand officer Chelsea Bialla departed the company. Sebastiani told NOSH that Bialla had departed for “personal reasons” but her “fingerprints are all over our brands.” To fill the vacancy, Lauren Egan has been promoted to VP of Brand and the Sonoma Brands team is assisting with operations and the day-to-day management of the business. It’s a testament, Sebastiani said, to the Sonoma team. “Having a tremendously complimentary, collaborative group of people that are accretive in their backgrounds and talents to each other is just sensationally important,” Sebastiani said.

Sonoma Brands Sees Management Additions

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We define wellness tech as companies developing technology to help consumers improve their physical, mental, and social well-being. Companies in this collection play across a wide range of categories, including food and beverage, fitness, personal care, and corporate wellness.

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Medlie provides fresh, wholesome, organic vegetables through for daily life. Its plant-based blended veggie drinks and veggie shots are simple, convenient, and made for busy people who want to eat healthy and feel great without compromising.

Date	Round	Amount	Investors	Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.	Revenue	Sources
1/30/2019	Debt	$1.5M	Undisclosed Investors		0 FY undefined	1
6/23/2016	Seed VC		Subscribe to see more		0 FY undefined	10

Date	1/30/2019	6/23/2016
Round	Debt	Seed VC
Amount	$1.5M
Investors	Undisclosed Investors	Subscribe to see more
Valuation
Revenue	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined
Sources	1	10

First funding	6/23/2016
Last Funding	6/23/2016
Investor	Sonoma Brands Capital
Rounds	1 Seed VC
Board Seats
Type	Private Equity
Location	California

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