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CNBC
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- Business
- CNBC
18. Fruitist
Founder: Steve Magami (CEO)Launched: 2012Headquarters: Los AngelesFunding: $293 millionValuation: $1 billionKey Technologies: N/AIndustry: AgriculturePrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 0 The company formerly known as Agrovision looks to be a one-of-a-kind: The first berry-based unicorn in history. The past year was a big one for the Los Angeles-based startup, which changed its name to Fruitist. It introduced grape-sized blueberries, broke ground in China to meet that country's demand for superfruits, and raised a combined $500 million in venture capital and through a credit facility. Fruitist is disrupting the snack food market, which is estimated at $50 billion in the United States alone. Berries have taken off against a backdrop of changing tastes, as consumers search for healthier snack options, especially as more people take GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Recent press reports indicate the company is considering an IPO in the near future, after already reaching $400 million in annual sales, according to CNBC reporting. The company, founded in 2012, is making its first major marketing moves as a sponsor of the professional soccer club D.C. United. While tariffs remain a wildcard, Fruitist is in the midst of a global expansion, building out a network of sustainable farms to enable complementary harvest seasons. After a start in Peruvian blueberries, the company has since expanded to grow raspberries, blackberries, and cherries. In December, it acquired Chile's ZurGroup to expand into premium cherries. In November, a $400 million credit facility, extended by Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Scotiabank and BBVA among others, replaced a $210 million credit line. Last year the company also secured a $100 million venture capital round led by Aliment Capital that valued the company at the $1 billion unicorn mark. Hedge fund billionaire and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio is one of its backers. In 2024, its fruit was sold in over 12,700 stores, including Whole Foods, Wakefern, Giant, Trader Joe's, and Wegmans, up over 20% from 2023. Fruitist is a high-flying tech company, but it was built on public infrastructure investment. The company was founded by Steve Magami, who recognized the agricultural potential of Peru, according to an "Authority Magazine" interview on Medium. Working for a private equity firm, he flew to the South American country to look at starting a biofuel company. But the market crashed, and instead of biofuels, Magami started what was then Agrovision. He also benefitted from the Olmos Irrigation project, which diverted water from the Atlantic side of the country, using a tunnel and a dam, to a desert on the Pacific side, turning it into fertile agricultural land. Magami has said he is committed to the social impacts of the business, explaining that more than half its workforce in Peru are women. "Agriculture in South America is creating an economy that would not otherwise exist. Our team in Peru earns an attractive monthly wage that is improving the quality of lives and building communities," he told entrepreneur Chad Silverstein in the Authority interview. The company also meets about 35% of its electricity needs through solar power.
Entrepreneur
20-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How He Started a Business With Over $1 Billion in Sales
Steve Magami grew up in a "wellness-oriented" family, and early on, he experienced the frustration shared by fruit consumers across the U.S.: the pervasive game of "berry roulette," where there's no guarantee that the carton of berries pulled from a grocery store shelf will actually taste good. Image Credit: Courtesy of Fruitist. Steve Magami. The issue often stems from a scattered supply chain, wherein the product cycles through disparate growers, packers, distributors and retailers before it reaches the consumer. "The produce space went in the direction of commodity agriculture, which is an extreme focus on cost and yield to bring cost per kilo down," Magami tells Entrepreneur. Magami wanted to start a berry business with a vertical supply chain that would raise the bar for product quality. He and his co-founder, Thomas Snyder, founded Agrovision, a Los Angeles-based agriculture company specializing in berries, in 2012, and introduced its berry brand Fruitist in 2020. Related: A Cambodian Refugee Paralyzed By Polio Says 'Not Much' Was Expected of Him. He and His Wife Built a Multimillion-Dollar Business That Beat All Odds. The brand has been making its mark on the massive global berry market ever since. Fruitist's flagship product is its jumbo blueberries, but the company also sells blackberries, raspberries and cherries. Today, Fruitist's sales generate over $400 million a year, and the brand just surpassed $1 billion in lifetime sales. The parent company officially changed its name to Fruitist on April 16. "We knew we needed a name that reflected our mission, identity and where we were going," Magami says. Image Credit: Courtesy of Fruitist "I saw an opportunity to use these microclimates with a new model to solve that 'berry roulette.'" Magami was working in private equity, looking at microclimates for large-scale biofuel development and deployment, when inspiration for Fruitist struck. "I saw an opportunity to use these microclimates with a new model to solve that 'berry roulette,'" Magami says. "I saw an opportunity to truly inspire healthy and enjoyable snacking." The berry industry might not be widely recognized for its potential for disruption, but as Magami and Snyder built their brand "brick by brick," they managed to attract notable investors, including the family office of Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates. Related: 4 Strategies for Creating a Compelling Business Plan That Actually Attracts Investors — and Secures Funding "It's so unique because we're disrupting this sleepy industry, the fruit aisle," Magami explains. "This is a high-impact play. There's a lot of sustainability around this, and it gives you the ability to play outside of tech but in a high-growth, disruptive way." Fruitist has raised a total of $693 million between equity and debt, per the company. These days, Fruitist has to turn interested investors away, Magami says. "They're making more money per square inch of the shelf. There's virtually no shrink with us." Fruitist relies on technology and data analytics to achieve its consistent product quality. The company has invested more than $600 million since its founding to build precise, high-tech production operations in seven countries in addition to the U.S.: Peru, Mexico, Chile, Morocco, Egypt, China and India. The plan was always to start with a differentiated product and secure buy-in from retailers, which would then get consumers on board in just "a matter of time," Magami says. Customer demand across the more than 12,500 U.S. retail stores where Fruitist is available, including Costco and Whole Foods, proves that assessment out. "Our retailers are making more money with us," Magami says. "We're driving foot traffic, [and] they're making more money per square inch of the shelf. There's virtually no shrink with us." Related: 5 Business Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Built a Startup Fruitist's commitment to product quality has also helped Fruitist position its berries for U.S. snacking culture. "Obviously, the trend is towards healthier, nutritious, convenient, grab-and-go," Magami says. "Blueberries are already so healthy, but to have blueberries that are so good and so consistent is a massive unlock. Because now you're hitting everything that you could want in a snack." Image Credit: Courtesy of Fruitist "The dollars will come. Don't cut corners prioritizing cost over consumer experience." Magami is determined to build Fruitist into a generational business — not one that "stops growing after five years" — and to continue amplifying its brand messaging. Magami is especially excited to continue that work through the world of sports. Fruitist became the official snack partner of D.C. United, announcing a multi-year partnership in February 2024, and partnered with the University of Southern California's (USC) Trojans last October. What's more, Fruitist is particularly keen on capturing the attention of younger generations. Magami is encouraged by the positive response from his children and their friends to Fruitist's berries and strives to get the product into the hands of other young snackers. The brand's forthcoming snack cups, which will retail for about $3, are another step toward increased accessibility, Magami says. Related: How to Master the Art of Brand Messaging With Clear and Consistent Communication Despite the company's impressive track record to date, Magami believes that Fruitist has "only scratched the surface" of what's possible — and notes that other founders considering the produce space should embrace the chance to fill gaps in quality. "There's so much opportunity across the produce aisle, in our view, from what we've seen outside of our products that we're focused on, which is berries and cherries," Magami says. "I would encourage entrepreneurs to focus on controlling the quality consistently and delivering an experience on the shelf, and the dollars will come. Don't cut corners prioritizing cost over consumer experience."
NBC News
22-04-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Inside the $1 billion berry startup backed by Ray Dalio's family office
Berry unicorn startup Fruitist has surpassed $400 million in annual sales, thanks to the success of its long-lasting jumbo blueberries. The company, which was founded in 2012, announced on Tuesday that it is changing its name from Agrovision to Fruitist. It previously only used the name for branding its consumer products, which also include raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. As sales of its berries grow, Fruitist has raised more than $600 million in venture capital, according to Pitchbook data. Notable backers include the family office of Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Fruitist is reportedly considering going public as soon as this year, even as global trade conflicts hit stocks and raise fears about a global economic slowdown. The company has tried to set itself apart in a crowded space in part by positioning its berries as 'snackable.' The snacking category has been one of the fastest growing in the food industry in recent years. While many consumers still enjoy potato chips and pretzels, many big food companies have expanded their portfolios in recent years to include healthier options. The adoption of GLP-1 drugs and the 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda pushed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have made healthier snacking options even more attractive to both consumers and investors. Today, Fruitist's berries can be found in more than 12,500 North American retailers, including Costco, Walmart and Whole Foods. Sales of its jumbo blueberries alone have tripled in the last 12 months, fueling the company's growth. Fixing 'berry roulette' Co-founder and CEO Steve Magami told CNBC that Fruitist was created to solve the problem of 'berry roulette.' That's what he calls the uneven quality of grocery store berries, which he blames on the business model of legacy produce players. 'You have a bunch of small growers that send their product to a packer, and the packer sends the product to a distributor or an importer, and then that player is either selling to the retailers or they are sending the product to another distributor to then sell to retailers,' Magami said. 'You have this disjointed value chain that stifles quality.' To sell more berries of higher consistent quality, the company grows its fruit in microclimates, with its own farms in Oregon, Morocco, Egypt and Mexico. It also uses machine learning models to predict the best time to pick the fruit. Fruitist invested heavily in infrastructure, like on-site cold storage to keep the berries fresh before they ship. The company's vertically integrated supply chain means that its berries should last longer than the competition. 'I've intentionally let them sit in my refrigerator for three weeks, and they're still great after three weeks,' Magami said. Larger berries, like the company's non-genetically modified jumbo blueberries that are two to three times the size of a regular blueberry, also have a longer shelf life. Looking ahead, Fruitist is planning to expand into cherries. The company is growing them now on its Chilean farms and plans to start shipping them next season, which means they could land in grocery stores by early 2026. Magami said the company has invested more than $600 million to farm berries year-round and build a global footprint that spans North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. To date, Fruitist has spent little of the funding it has raised on marketing, although that's set to change. In February, Major League Soccer team D.C. United announced a multiyear deal with the company, including an exclusive sleeve patch partnership. Tariffs and public plans One push for public recognition could come in the form of an initial public offering. In January, Bloomberg reported that the company was weighing going public as soon as June. Magami declined to comment on the report to CNBC. If Fruitist decides to go public, it will enter a public market that has yielded mixed results for new stocks in recent years. Produce giant Dole returned to the public markets in 2021. Shares of the company have risen 14% over the last year, outpacing the S&P 500′s gains of 2% over the same period. Dole, which reported annual revenue of $2.2 billion last year, has a market value of $1.3 billion. However, market turmoil caused by the White House's trade wars have led a number of companies, like Klarna and StubHub, to delay their plans to go public. But investors are interested in consumer companies with strong growth; shares of Chinese tea chain Chagee climbed 15% in the company's public market debut on Thursday. Trade tensions present other challenges for a global produce company. President Donald Trump has temporarily lowered new tariff rates on imports from most countries to just 10% until early July, but it's unclear what could happen after that deadline. India, where Fruitist owns nearly 50 acres to grow blueberries, is facing a 26% duty, for example. Still, Magami said the company is anticipating 'minimal impact' from the duties, noting that it has been investing in U.S. production for years. 'We're optimistic about how this will play out,' he said. 'We don't import to compete with the domestic supply, we import to actually provide 52 weeks.' Luckily for Fruitist, the tariff rates are set to rise when domestic berries are in season.
