Life Equals shoots $2.35M oversubscribed round led by former Anheuser-Busch InBev exec
January 31, 2019 | Elyssa Bezner
Well, that didn’t take long.
A freshly raised $2.35 million investment round will be a turning point for Life Equals, taking its brand to the national stage, said Kyle FitzGerald, announcing the funding Thursday at Startland’s Startups to Watch in 2019 celebration.
Life Equals was selected as No. 7 on the list of Kansas City companies expected to make big news this year. Click here to see the full Startups to Watch in 2019 ranking.
Kyle FitzGerald, Life Equals, Balance – The Superfood Shot
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to bring in truly strategic capital to Kansas City,” said FitzGerald, co-founder of the Roeland Park-based brand that delivers Balance the Superfood Shot. “We’ve been able to tap into investors from Chicago and Detroit, all the way out to New York and bring some venture capital back here to Kansas City, and leverage this Midwestern network to do so much more.”
Life Equals’ experience proves that startups shouldn’t limit their equity expectations for Kansas City, he said, instead leveraging the area’s resources to make more difficult pitches on the road.
“We wanted to bring that [capital] back here and be really proud of being a Kansas City company,” said FitzGerald. “We put in a lot of hard work to get those pitches to the right people and that’s kind of a message that I would share with other startups at an earlier stage than us.”
“Just know that it takes a lot of contacts and a lot of pitches to get that capital and that’s totally normal and that’s what it takes to succeed,” he added.
With support from KC-area funds like KCRise and Mid-America Angels, as well as other Midwestern networks, the beverage brand gained an important backer in Delaware-based Dreampact Ventures, which oversubscribed the round and provided a key board member in Luis Edmond, former chief sales officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest food and beverage company, he said.
“To be able to bring that level of deep experience into our deal is wildly exciting for potential growth,” said FitzGerald. “Luis is a new board member so [Dreampact Ventures] does work hand-in-hand with us on a monthly basis, and has been really critical to us getting our plan for expansion down and then being able to execute on them.”
Click here to read more about how Life Equals is shaking up the health industry.
Balance the Superfood Shot — now delivered in three blends: Foundation, Immunity, and the newly released Turmeric — is expected to be launching in Whole Foods’ Pacific Northwest sector in July, which includes Portland and Seattle, said FitzGerald.
Life Equals also is expected to pitch to Whole Foods this summer for the chance to break out on the retailer’s global platform, he said, noting a couple new blends are in the works for later in 2019.
With the Turmeric blend gaining popularity on Amazon, the beverage company still flows 60 percent of its total product to online stores, he added, with the shots manufactured in Lenexa, Kansas.
“[Life Equals] really is a homemade brand and we’re taking our product and shipping it literally to every state in the union,” said FitzGerald.
Featured Business
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Denise Kruse: So your startup wants to be acquired – now what?
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In the first column this three-part series, I discussed how a stellar strategy only gets your company halfway, but executing can take you to the finish line. Next, we took a deep dive into what startups should do after landing a first big…
Tech tracks workplace bias: It exists ‘whether you want to face it or not’
During a summer internship with a large Kansas City corporation, college student Louis Byrd was unexpectedly called into the HR office. Although the incident was about 10 years ago today, it has not yet left his mind, Byrd said. “I’ll never forget this,” he said. “HR told me that the people on my team had…
EyeVerify explains why it changed name to Zoloz
More than two months after revealing a curious name change, EyeVerify is offering details behind its evolution to become “Zoloz.” The fast-growing biometrics tech firm announced in August that it was rebranding as Zoloz, but initially offered little information about the reason for or meaning behind the name change. Headquartered in downtown Kansas City, a…
Sandy Kemper-led YEP KC primes teen entrepreneurs for success
If all extraordinary students knew they were exceptional, the world would be a much more entrepreneurial place, said Sandy Kemper. “It’s the future of our city,” said Kemper, co-founder of YEP KC, about young talent. “If we can capture them early, before they go to college, we can create a network that can sustain them…