When Kathryn Bernell first launched a sustainable smoothie company nearly five years ago, it was a labor of love.
The Denver resident found herself spending late nights in her home kitchen, iterating on the company’s smoothie flavors made from discarded produce from farmers and manufacturers.
“I was making the products myself,” she said. “I was working from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. overnight becoming intimately familiar with our recipes and formulations.”
Now, with a swell of customer and investor support, Bernell has rebranded the company from reBLEND to reHarvest Provisions and announced a $1.5 million seed funding round.
The round was led by previous investor True Wealth Ventures, along with Flagstaff Ventures and Segal Ventures, and alongside Captra Capital, Chicago Early, Dobson Avenue and CPG focused angels.
Bernell, who no longer hand-makes each product at home, said she is using this round of capital to grow reHarvest’s staff, expand into brick-and-mortar retail and innovate on the company’s product line.
ReHarvest offers a series of smoothie pops, from a Frosé pop to the popular new release of raspberry lemonade.
The company sources unnecessarily discarded produce from manufacturers and farmers to create its smoothies. Produce that may not look good enough to be placed on grocery shelves is rerouted to reHarvest for inclusion in its smoothies.
The last two years have been crucial in the company’s growth, with reHarvest Provisions partnering with Kroger’s Zero Waste Fund and Barilla’s Blu 1877 Venture Fund, along with national sales through Thrive Market, QVC, Fresh Direct and Amazon.
Additionally, Bernell was one of 22 Colorado founders named to Forbes' Next 1000 list, which highlights private business owners who have under $10 million in revenue or funding and have a shot at becoming the next big thing in the entrepreneurial landscape.
With that momentum, Bernell knew it was time to inject outside capital into her business.
“I finally got to a place where I felt like I learned a lot and we are now in a position where it’s time to scale and we need outside capital to fund this next chapter of expansion,” she said.
Bernell has brought on a few staff members in recent months and plans to hire a sales leader and operations associate in the future following this round.
She’s also eyeing retail opportunities, leaning on her professional experience at Clif Bar to guide her toward a sustainable growth trajectory.
“I have very big views of where this brand will show up, to get there I want to be smart about winning piece by piece,” she said.
And, while reHarvest’s roots are in smoothies, Bernell hinted at additional product lines in the future that would move the company out of the frozen category.
“We want to stand for more than just smoothie pops,” she said.
