Unilever backs Indonesia vitamins maker Youvit

Unilever has invested in Youvit, a nutritional vitamins provider based mostly in Indonesia.

Youvit, arrange in 2016, mentioned it had raised US$6m in a Collection B spherical of funding that included Unilever Ventures, the FMCG large’s corporate-investment automobile as one of many backers.

The corporate plans to make use of the funds to broaden its vary, rent employees and launch its full product vary throughout Malaysia. It additionally needs to “ramp up” throughout south-east Asia after turning into Indonesia’s “primary gummy vitamin model”. No information was supplied to help the declare.

Youvit argues the nutritional vitamins market is “rusty and old school” and believes there may be “a big marketplace for high quality merchandise that particularly goal millennials from the rising center courses in progress markets similar to Indonesia”.

Wouter van der Kolk, co-founder and CEO at Youvit, added: “Prospects deserve a greater expertise. We purpose to enhance the well being and well-being of a whole lot of tens of millions of consumers and because of this develop into the primary vitamin model for city millennials in south-east Asia.”

In recent times, Unilever has added to its meals portfolio with acquisitions within the nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements markets. Final 12 months, the Knorr soup and Magnum ice-cream maker acquired US dietary supplements enterprise Onnit. The 12 months earlier than, Unilever snapped up US-based SmartyPants Nutritional vitamins. In 2019, the corporate bought US-based vitamins-to-snack-bars agency Olly Diet.

Pawan Chaturvedi, a associate at Unilever Ventures, set out why the fund had invested in Youvit. “With its trendy and progressive product codecs and an omnichannel strategy to distribution, Youvit is poised to disrupt the massive nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements market in south-east Asia,” he mentioned. “Youvit additionally marks our first funding within the vibrant start-up ecosystem of south-east Asia, a market which provides us immense alternatives to associate with visionary founders.”

Non-public-equity agency DSG Shopper Companions, which was the investor in Youvit’s Collection A spherical, additionally took half within the newest increase.

Simply Meals has contacted van der Kolk for additional remark.