Minneapolis 'health shot' maker raises $14.5M to expand

So Good So You, the fast-growing, Minneapolis-based maker of plant-based “health shots,’ has raised $14.5 million in growth funding, one of the larger takes this year for a Minnesota small business.

Six-year-old So Good earlier indicated that it would have to sell or raise capital to keep up the pace.

“We’re fortunate to have found partners that believe in our product and more importantly, in our mission to do good for both people and the planet,” said CEO Rita Katona, who founded the 45-employee company with her husband, Eric Hall. “Customers have embraced the importance of proactively managing their health. With this new investment, our category-leading shots have an opportunity to help more people nationwide.”

Katona said she and Hall will retain majority control of the company, even though from New York’s Prelude Growth Partners made the single-largest investment in this round of funding. More than a dozen individuals previously invested about $8 million in So Good.

“The wellness shot category is growing exponentially due to consumers’ rising demand for convenient product offerings with clean, plant-based ingredients,” said Neda Daneshzadeh, managing partner of Prelude Growth Partners. “Our proprietary consumer research indicates So Good So You resonates deeply with millennials and has the highest repeat rate in the industry driven by its delicious and nutrition-rich products.”

So Good So You will use the capital to accelerate growth through stores and e-commerce. So Good expects to be profitable on sales of $12 million this year. Katona said revenue is up nearly 400% over the last 18 months.

Prelude Growth said it invests in category-leading consumer brands, including Banza, 8Greens, and Sol de Janeiro.

So Good supplements appeal to convenience-oriented consumers who pay up to $3.99 per shot but who may not have interest in preparing healthy meals heavy on fruits and vegetables.

“Our value is that these are blends of organic fruits and vegetables,” Katona said in September. “There is value and convenience. It’s … delicious.”

The company blends raw fruits and vegetables and then uses high-pressure processing to kill bacteria and increase refrigerator life without preservatives.

Hall, 45, and Katona, 39, are health-and-fitness devotees who met in a yoga class.

So Good So You boasts a mostly female workforce of 45. Factory workers are paid $15 to $22 an hour, plus vacation and health care benefits.

They have gone from producing 35,000 shots per day last year to 100,000 per day this year. The company has installed a new production system that will help it go from 12,000 to 20,000 shots per hour.

So Good So You manufactures in a 100% renewable energy-powered, zero-waste manufacturing facility in Minneapolis.