The latest funding round, which the startup plans to use to support manufacturing, brings the company’s total raised to date to just over $3 million.
The investor pool includes Lee Fentress, vice president of business development at the Los Angeles Times, Brandon Shainfeld of Unilever Ventures, and Evan Lowenstein, a former singer and founder of Hollywood-based StageIt.
The Bruvi system can make filtered coffee, espresso, Americanos, iced coffee, infused coffee and tea from its proprietary single-serve B-Pods. The recyclable coffee and tea pods include Sumo Matcha, Triple Death Coffee, Virtue & Vice and Wanderlust Coffee.
The smart device is also mobile app-connected and Wi-Fi enabled, so “consumers can brew remotely, auto order pods and access a user dashboard of consumption patterns,” according to the company.
Bruvi parent Divergent IP was founded in 2018 by Mel Elias, who served as president and chief executive at Coffee Bean from 2008 to 2013, and Sung Oh, an inventor and former patent attorney.
“2020 is a challenging year, yet investors agreed that Bruvi is perfectly positioned for success as consumers increasingly look to drink more and better coffee at home,” Elias said in a statement.
“Bruvi is first and foremost a coffee company. Our mission is to upgrade the at-home coffee experience with breakthrough brewing technology, better coffee and more eco-consciousness along with the convenience of single-serve,” he added.
Bruvi plans to launch its coffee brewer in the second half of 2021, via its ecommerce site.
