Pearly gains momentum with instant smoothies

Following two years of research, Haliba Abliz identified one of today’s most pressing modern-lifestyle challenges: the majority of the population live a busy life leaving them with barely time to prepare and consume healthy meals. While replacing some meals with smoothies is becoming prevalent, fresh fruits have a short shelf life and require the tools to prepare a smoothie. Pre-packaged smoothies in grocery stores come in mainly plastic bottles; they need storage when purchased in large quantities and contribute to waste production.

Addressing these challenges, Haliba, through her start-up, Pearly discovered the freeze-dry approach to create instant smoothies without compromising nutrients and taste. The method allows for transforming fresh organic fruits into powder for consumers to easily mix in water or one’s milk of choice to make a smoothie. The start-up collaborates with selected farmers in Europe to deliver organic fruits and with nutritionists to create recipes. Besides having a shelf life of one year, Pearly products come in small sustainable sachets, reusable bottles, and sustainable packaging, helping to reduce waste.

Since its launch in April 2021, the start-up has attracted over 2000 customers in Switzerland and abroad without marketing. According to Haliba, the company has continued to receive positive feedback as the number of customers grows week by week and revenues are growing steadily.

Moving forward, Pearly and its team of six aims to expand its product range to add to its assortment, which today comprises four products, advance its recipe and scale the business. To achieve its ambitions, the start-up is raising a new financing round. Pearly is currently participating in the Newchip Accelerator in the US, a six 6-months program offering selected start-ups a platform, tools and expert network to fund, build, and scale their business.

(RAN)