From Sri Lanka To New York, Millennia TEA Sets Its Sights On Growing Market
SAINT JOHN – Saint John-based Millennia TEA has its sights on the American market, and with the help from an upcoming pre-seed round and a spot in one of the world’s leading food startup accelerators, they are planning to do just that in 2020.
Millennia TEA are the makers of a flash-frozen tea line that best preserves its antioxidant qualities. After a few years of growing the business and customer base in Atlantic Canada, co-founder and CEO Tracy Bell says now that they have secured suppliers and found their product-market fit, they are ready to take things to the next level with their first round of investing, also known as a “pre-seed” round.
“Once we did all of that, we felt like we de-risked the business enough that it was time to go out for an investment round,” says Bell.
Millennia TEA is in the middle of completing its first seed round. So far, Bell says they have been able to secure funds from both private and public sources, including four angel investors, and a VC firm in New York. Though some deals are still being finalized, she says they’ve surpassed their goal of $500,000.
“Our work now is to really expand. The funds we use from our round will be used to support sales and marketing efforts. The plan at the end is to have standardized our operations, making sure that our processes are right and that we have a critical mass of retailers,” she says.
“The markets are in southern Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area. We’ll be bringing on our first retailers in the GTA this fall and then the plan is in the first part of 2020 to be selling northeastern U.S. market with a focus on Boston and New York.”
Millennia TEA is also one of eight startups from around the globe participating in the latest cohort of Food X, one of the world’s leading food innovation accelerators in the world based in New York. The accelerator has worked with more than 85 young companies over the last five years.
In total, Food-X has invested more than $10 million in startups, such as Halla, Uplift Food, Bizzy Coffee, Simply Good Jars, and Abbot’s Butcher , who have gone on to raise an additional $40 million.
For the latest cohort, Food-X reviewed nearly 500 applications from more than 50 countries before landing on eight startups from Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and the U.S. Fifty per cent of the current cohort companies are led by a female CEO, Millennia TEA being one of them.
Bell will be in New York until early December for the program.
“It makes a lot of sense for the offering we have in this market,” says Bell. “Being in New York City and getting linked into the business, innovation and good culture here in the network, to be able to be ready to launch our product in this market in the northeastern U.S. in the first part of 2020 is a big one for us.”
Just before landing in New York, Bell and her husband/business partner Rory, finished a trip to Sri Lanka last week, where they met with their new supply partners there. They met and worked alongside the farmers and pluckers to make sure everything was up to the company standard.
“We got to see these communities nestled into the mountains where they go and harvest tea by hand and get to spend time with the farmers there and see how they live,” says Bell. “We got to spend time in their homes and experience their tea traditions and see how tea is not a commodity. It’s not just a thing there; it’s a lifestyle.”
The Sri Lankan suppliers completed their first large production run last week.
Millennia TEA started three years ago when Bell and Rory had a cancer scare in their family and were encouraged by health professionals to find the most antioxidant-rich tea they can find. The experience created a company with a mission to provide the freshest, most nutrient-rich teas products anywhere and bring it to everyone who wants it. Bell says she feels the company is on its way to do just that.
“To now be at the point of going out and doing it and starting to see that impact and make the real difference that we’ve been dreaming about making for a long time it exciting. It feels really good to be at this moment,” she says. “In business, you work for a long time to grow and do the things you aspire to do and I feel like this is our moment in time where we’re getting the opportunity to go out and do what we said we were going to do.”
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