Seattle-based yogurt brand Ellenos has received $18 million in funding from US private equity firm Monogram Capital Partners.
Ellenos said the deal will enable it to expand its distribution, introduce new products, and build on its brand awareness in the Greek yogurt category.
Founded in 2013, Ellenos was conceived when Bob and Yvonne Klein convinced Con and Alex Apostolopoulos to bring their longstanding family recipe to the US from Australia. The families joined forces to launch Ellenos in Seattle, beginning with a retail operation and expanding over the past five years into regional natural and conventional grocery stores.
The yogurt is made from the heritage cultures Con and Alex brought over from Australia and is strained and blended over a proprietary five-day process.
By entering into the partnership with Monogram, Ellenos aims to bring its family recipe to new markets, first in the Pacific Northwest, and then further afield. The investment will also allow the brand to add more employees.
Ellenos yogurts are strained and blended over a proprietary five-day process.
Ellenos founder Con Apostolopoulos said: “We created this brand to bring our family recipe to as many passionate fans of the product as we possibly could and sought out a partner that could help us scale while maintaining the authenticity and heritage of each cup.
“Monogram is the perfect partner to help enable us to extend and grow our reach while preserving the highest quality standards of the product our customers have come to know and love.”
Monogram founder and partner Jared Stein added: “We couldn’t be more excited to be joining forces with the Ellenos family to bring this cult favourite yogurt to new fans in new markets. The most amazing part of this process has been watching customers try the Ellenos product for the first time as their expectations and associations with yogurt are shattered by a product that is unlike any other in the yogurt case. We feel extremely privileged to partner with the team to help them expand that first taste phenomenon and bring this revolutionary treat to new frontiers.”
Flavours of Ellenos yogurts include lemon curd, pumpkin pie, and marionberry.
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