NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sakara Life, the direct-to-consumer New York City-based wellness and lifestyle program that is transforming lives by harnessing the power of food as medicine, announced today the completion of a $15 million Series B financing with significant investment from new investors One Better Ventures, Silas Capital (Boll & Branch, Herbivore, ILIA) and existing investor, Annox Capital (ClassPass, Dropbox, Clear). Sakara also announces the appointment of strategic investor John Replogle, former CEO of Seventh Generation + Burt’s Bees, as Chairman of Sakara Life’s Board of Directors to shepherd an expansion into new consumer packaged goods verticals.
The Series B investment is led by John Replogle, Silas Capital, and Annox Capital’s founder, Bob Mylod (Former CFO and Vice Chairman of Priceline), who has been an investor and Board member of Sakara since the closing of their Series A round in late 2015. In this new role, John Replogle will help grow and scale Sakara’s CPG vertical into a fully comprehensive global lifestyle brand spanning multiple categories outside of food. Replogle specializes in nurturing and developing consumer brands that have a positive impact on the world through mission-driven ventures with breakthrough sustainable business models. In the age of COVID-19, Replogle reports consumers will double down on items that have an indelible impact on their health.
"I joined as an investor and Chair of the Board of Sakara because I believe the company is uniquely positioned to create a consumer-compelling platform at the forefront of the wellness movement,” says John Replogle. “I'm excited to build on the magic the team has created and help cultivate a robust health and beauty platform. Sakara is beautifully positioned to tailor to every facet of each client’s lifestyle, to advance human health, and to continue on their mission to transform lives on a global scale."
A testament to the company’s crescendoed growth, Sakara was able to turn a $5M raise in 2015 into immediate profitability within one year and 15x revenue growth to date. Sakara is expected to approach $150 million in profitable revenue this year and stands as an example of the value consumers place on mission-driven brands. The transformational results clients experience year after year and ability to scale quickly whilst remaining profitable is a feat unique among startups in hypergrowth. Raising $20 million in capital-to-date, Sakara’s most recent round of funding will fuel the holistic lifestyle brand to accelerate innovation within its CPG arm and sustainability practices.
“John Replogle, who will now act as Chairman of the Board, will help take what we know about health and clean living and translate that into products that not only transform the way we eat, but the way we live,” says Whitney Tingle, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Sakara Life.“If we’ve learned anything about consumer behavior while building this company, it’s that people finally understand that the choices you make every single day have the greatest impact on your health, and we’re proud to be a part of those daily decisions,” says Whitney Tingle, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Sakara Life.
"Sakara Life is a category-defining brand offering a proprietary nutrition philosophy backed by cutting-edge science that has delivered proven efficacy. We feel the brand has broad permission to credibly extend into several larger adjacent categories, including clean beauty,’ stated Brian Thorne, Partner of Silas.
Sakara, which sold nearly 2 million meals in 2020, plans to use the influx of capital to expand into new categories, introduce new technology, invest further in its sustainable packaging and support the growth of the team’s footprint.
Key areas of investment include:
- Product Innovation: Beyond what Sakara is most known for -- 100% organic, nutritionally-designed meals and snacks -- the company will create additional functional products outside of the food category to make Sakara part of every health decision you need to make. Most immediately, Sakara will debut their new line of supplements, and plans to expand into the beauty and personal care space for the first time.
- Enhanced User-Interface + Mobile App: As a direct-to-consumer business, innovate with user-friendly, efficient technology for consumers to engage with Sakara online, including the launch of an app for client ordering and shopping, as well as innovative technology that help clients meet and measure their results using Sakara Life programming.
- Talent Acquisition: Expand Sakara’s bi-coastal team to grow the CPG, marketing and technology teams.
- Sustainability Promise: While adopting a plant-based diet is one of the proven ways humans can positively impact the planet, Sakara will continue to innovate with the most sustainable packaging available. Sakara’s current packaging is made from recycled water bottles -- diverting 15 million plastic bottles from landfills in 2020. The brand will commit to becoming 100% recyclable, compostable or biodegradable when it comes to packaging by 2023.
- Give-Back Initiative: Sakara is pledging to give $1M in cash and in-kind donations (a mixture of food, products, and meal programs) over the next three years to organizations aligned with their mission of transforming lives and improving health and vitality in our communities.
- On + Offline Programming: Sakara will be producing robust digital content including e-books, ramping up affiliate programming and digital activations as well as investing in field marketing and regional city tours to drive brand awareness in key markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston.
Founded in 2012 by Whitney Tingle and Danielle DuBoise, Sakara Life provides a wide array of premium wellness solutions, including its signature plant-based nutrition program delivered ready-to-eat to clients' doorsteps and a digital marketplace with more than 30 branded functional snacks, supplements and ingestible wellness products. The co-founders pioneered the concept of ‘food as medicine’ and infused this groundbreaking philosophy into the zeitgeist as it is understood today. Sakara’s numerous industry-first moments have cemented the brand’s identity as wellness’ premiere plant-based and first-to-market nutrition authority. Almost ten years later, Sakara employs 172 individuals and is available nationwide. Other industry firsts include being among the first brands to offer ingestible CBD in the form of its best-selling Hemp Chocolates as well as tapping into the ingestible beauty category with its introduction of collagen-boosting, award-winning Beauty Chocolates, Probiotic Chocolates and Nootropic Chocolates.
"We are building a global wellness movement -- one that uses the power of plants as medicine -- that puts you in the driver’s seat of your own well-being. We’re humbled by the enthusiasm from this set of incredibly talented and experienced group of investors as we set out to redefine the future of wellness,” says Sakara Life Co-Founder and Co-CEO Danielle DuBoise.
About Sakara Life
Sakara Life is a New York City-based wellness and lifestyle brand providing all the tools for people to love the bodies they live in to live a mindful, healthy life, including an organic, nutritionally-designed meal program delivered ready-to-eat to clients' doorsteps. Sakara Life was founded in 2012 by Whitney Tingle and Danielle DuBoise who bootstrapped the company with $700 they raised at a dinner party. Now available across the U.S. with offices in NY and LA, Sakara Life has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people with its holistic approach to food and innovative meal delivery program nutritionally designed and chef-crafted to nourish the body, mind, and spirit.
Sakara Life has quickly become a favorite among celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Lily Aldridge and Drew Barrymore whose demand helped grow its nationwide footprint since 2015. The brand now offers a wide array of wellness solutions ranging from its signature nutritionally-designed meal delivery program, a digital marketplace with more than 30 branded SKUs of functional snacks and supplements, as well as S-Life Magazine, a content-rich editorial space where followers can learn about the science and spirituality behind the Sakara lifestyle. Their debut cookbook, Eat Clean Play Dirty is a National Bestseller and their recently-launched namesake podcast features the voices of today’s most influential industry tastemakers, including Jessica Alba, Arianna Huffington and Dr. Mark Hyman.
About John Replogle & One Better Ventures
John Replogle is a leader in the conscious consumer and mission-driven brand movement, with extensive experience leading fast growth, high performing businesses including Seventh Generation and Burt’s Bees. Seventh Generation helped to launch the B Corp movement and has been awarded the “Best for the World” distinction from B Labs. John believes that business is one of the most powerful forces on earth and such power must be harnessed for the greater good. He also served as President of Unilever’s Skin Care business and President of the Guinness Bass Import Company. John started his career at the Boston Consulting Group and holds degrees from Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College. Recently, John is a Founding Partner of One Better Ventures, a Real Leader 100 social impact firm that advises and invests in mission driven consumer goods companies. He serves on the Boards of Seventh Generation, Dartmouth, Leesa Sleep, Cree, Melissa & Doug, Beautycounter and BEST NC. He is an active environmentalist and champion of social entrepreneurs.
About Silas Capital
Since 2012, Silas Capital has been an active emerging growth equity and venture capital investor that partners with consumer brands, in order to help these companies achieve significant revenue growth and profitability, improve operational efficiency, and increase brand recognition and value. The complementary backgrounds of the firm's partners comprise executive leadership roles across growth equity and venture capital firms, as well as operating companies, which allows the group to deliver on a unique value-add proposition to the management teams, founders and companies with whom we partner. The firm not only invests capital to help these companies grow, but also brings significant resources and capabilities to actively assist in the growth of revenue through its expertise in e-commerce and digital expansion, alongside its knowledge of traditional wholesale and retail channels. Previous and current investments for Silas include Bare Snacks, Bellroy, Boll & Branch, Casper, Chief, Dos Toros, HATCH, Herbivore, ILIA Beauty, Naadam, Lord Jones, Something Navy and Summersalt to name a few. Learn more at www.silascapital.com.
About Annox Capital
Founded in 2013, Annox Capital is a venture capital firm based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The firm looks to invest in and advise companies that take a bold approach to doing things, using disruptive technology or online strategy to improve business processes or human experiences. In addition to Sakara, Annox Capital has invested in innovative companies such as Redfin, Vroom, Clear, StockX, ClassPass, and Dropbox.
