Bruvi, a maker of a single-serve pod-based brewing system, has raised a $7 million pre-Series A round as it prepares to launch its brewer and direct-to-consumer pod marketplace in 2022.
According to an announcement sent to The Spoon, the company plans to use the funding to “pay for manufacturing, software development, brewer inventory, and digital advertising expenses, as it prepares for pre-orders in November 2021 and national launch in Q1 2022.”
While many of the new coffee systems coming to market nowadays seem to be grind and brew systems that do away with the pod altogether, Bruvi is bucking the trend by rethinking the pod-brewer. The Bruvi brewer, which is Wi-Fi connected and app-controlled, adjusts heating parameters and brew-strength depending on the pod, which the system scans when inserted. The app will set brew schedules, monitor usage, and allow you to reorder.
The company claims the Bruvi system is differentiated by being the only pod-brewing system that brews coffee in the pod itself. This is debatable, especially considering Nespresso’s Vertuo pod system, which uses centrifugal force to extrude a crema espresso from the pod.
The company says its pod is more eco-friendly because it is made of treated polypropylene, which it claims will biodegrade up to 63% in about 600 days, compared with just 2% biodegradation of a normal pod. While that’s better, a more biodegradable pod is still a pod, something that adds to the waste stream. But for those coffee lovers that insist on using a pod-brewer, Bruvi’s system could be a way to reduce the mountain of plastic their coffee habit leaves behind.
Bruvi’s founders include longtime coffee industry executives Sung Oh and Mel Elias. Oh is the technical cofounder, having spent five years inventing a single-pod system for his company Touch Coffee and Beverages. Elias brings the coffee industry connections from his prior stint as the former CEO of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Customers can pre-order the Bruvi bundle, which features a brewer, 24 B-Pods and water filter, for $198 starting in November. The company says it will begin shipping the brewer in the first quarter of 2022.
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