Green drink craze? Steaz teas raises $11M for organic and fair trade tea
The environmental movement, increasingly fed by the specter of global warming, is causing a lot of side effects. Trademarks including words like “eco”, “earth”, “environment” and “organic”, for instance, have exploded in popularity. One specific trend that’s seeing venture investment is environmentally-friendly drinks.
Just three days ago we reported that Adina For Life raised $6.6 million for juice, coffee and tea. Now another firm called The Healthy Beverage Company, which operates under the trade name Steaz, has managed to round up $11 million for fairly traded, organic (and kosher!) teas.
Sold in cans and bottles, Steaz drinks are sold by retailers like grocery stores and gas stations. However, the ultimate game plan probably involves an acquisition by the likes of Coke or Pepsi, who are deeply interested in “green” branding (or washing, depending on your take).
The funding was provided by Inventages Venture Capital and Whitefish Group. HBC is based in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
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About the Author, Chris Morrison
Chris Morrison writes about cleantech and environmental issues for VentureBeat, with occasional forays into gaming and semantic technology. He got his start writing about tech for Business 2.0 magazine, but quickly realized new media was the ticket when that institution closed its doors in 2007. Chris has also covered public equities and regulatory issues. He originally hails from southern Virginia, graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington, and now lives in San Francisco.