Plant-based milk startup Elari won the top prize at the University City Science Center’s OnRamp’s pitch competition.
The Philadelphia company took home $5,000 from the Stimulate Your Startup competition, which was hosted as part of the B.PHL Innovation Fest on Thursday night.
Elari is a tigernut root milk brand. Like other plant-based milks, it is slightly sweet and with some nuttiness. It’s often used in horchata de chufa, a Spanish riff on the traditional rice-based Mexican drink, and it’s also consumed in Nigeria.
“We believe in ingredients that replenish the planet and provide functional nutrition to our customers,” Elari founder Kenny Oyefara said. “So it's essentially better for the people and better for the planet.”
The plant-based milk market has been growing in recent years, with the market valued at $17 billion, the Financial Times reported, as consumers increasingly turn away from cow’s milk. Swedish oat milk powerhouse Oatly had a $10 billion initial public offering this year, per CNBC, and more and more companies like Nestlé are hopping on the plant-based milk train with their own brands.
Elari is seeking to get in on the action as the first tigernut root milk company.
“In this space, we are definitely on trend,” Oyefara said.
Elari is not yet available to buy. The company is planning a soft launch in early 2022 with a wholesale approach to brick-and-mortar grocery stores along with a direct-to-consumer shop on its website. It plans to start with 50 stores, selling a 32-ounce bottle for $5.99.
The company plans to raise between $1 million and $1.5 million to fund a marketing and sales plan, hire employees, build inventory and have working capital, Oyefara said.
The startup has St. Joseph’s University food marketing Professor George Latella on its team as vice president of sales and marketing.
Two other startups took prizes from the OnRamp pitch competition. Events startup Philly Experiences, designed with Black and LGBTQ+ Philadelphians and visitors in mind, received $2,500. Weight loss competition platform Fit4Friends took the third place prize, $1,500.
Also participating in the OnRamp competition were Pollitic, a polling app for constituents to vote on issues that concern them; Jochi, a task app for high school students; Sister’s Original Supreme Pies, a pie company selling flavors like butternut squash and “24-karrot,” and Groove Tracker, a motion therapy startup.
