A Bucks County beverage technology company has raised $10 million and secured a partnership with a leading manufacturer in a move that sets the firm on a path from startup to scale-up.
Sojo Industries' Series A round included participation from Schreiber Corporate Ventures, an arm of Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Schreiber Foods. The food and beverage manufacturing and logistics company has a presence on five continents and annual sales of over $7 billion. Tech Council Ventures also participated in the Series A.
Based in Bristol, Sojo Industries was founded by Barak Bar-Cohen, the former COO of beverage brand Bai, and Steve Rubin, the former CEO of shipping giant Horizon Lines. Its Sojo Flight business uses robotics and other technology in beverage warehouses to set up mobile manufacturing lines.
The impetus for the business was to help beverage companies more efficiently package variety packs, which are growing in popularity but can add complications to the production process.
"All of the top brands that you can think of in the beverage world, we're working with right now," Bar-Cohen said, though he declined to identify specific customers.
Sojo Industries has four of its own warehouses across the country. That includes a recently opened 150,000-square-foot facility in Temple, Texas, and an Indianapolis location it is expanding to a similar size.
The company has essentially doubled in all facets since the start of 2024. Its headcount has jumped from 39 to 86 and its number of customers increased from 24 at the end of 2023 to 50 currently. Revenue is tracking to double as well this year after tripling in 2023. Bar-Cohen said the company is "pretty much at break-even" and on track to hit $40 million in sales this calendar year.
Sojo will now look to leverage its new partnership with Schreiber Foods to further that growth.
"We instantly saw synergies and partnership opportunities and growth opportunities there," Bar-Cohen said of Schreiber's investment. "The second thing that was super attractive to us is that they have really an innovation technology DNA mindset."
Schreiber produces private label cheeses, beverages, cream cheeses and yogurts. Through Schreiber Logistics, the company also works in the food supply chain. It has some 40 facilities across five continents and over 10,000 employees globally. Bar-Cohen said there are "global opportunities" for Sojo to help Schreiber Foods "grow and innovate, especially in the packaging world."
Sojo is now working with Schreiber to integrate its Sojo Shield and Sojo Flight into the mobile manufacturing and packaging part of the business.
A track-and-trace platform, Sojo Shield launched earlier this year and allows companies to follow their various products as they go through the production process and are brought to market. The company is looking to use some of its fresh funding to further invest in the product, seeing opportunities to lean into artificial intelligence. Sojo plans to use its physical devices to create "digital pings" that will gather data on a product.
"We're in the process of building out an AI solution that then takes those digital pings and converts them and turns them into business insights," Bar-Cohen said.
The Series A brings Sojo's total funding to about $23 million.
"We're to the point where we've transitioned from startup to scale-up, which brings a new set of challenges and requires additional capital," Bar-Cohen said.
Bar-Cohen has plans to continue to "grow aggressively" thanks in large part to the fresh funding and new partnership. He said by mid-2025 he expects to have at least 100 employees. In another two to three years, "we have a line of sight to [be] a $100 million business," Bar-Cohen said.
