A $100 Million Juice Startup: Juicero

Henry Ford says, “Failure is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Just so apt for Doug Evans who was fired from his CEO position after running the for 11 years following the sale of hisNew York-based juice company Organic Avenue to investment firm Weld North.

But Evan was not the one to give up his love for juices and life. He went back to Silicon valley, built his artillery and is back with a new startup, .be">Juicero, that was launched yesterday, with a state-of-the-art juicer that produces cold-pressed juice from vacuum-sealed pouches, filled with fresh produce.

Somewhat similar to a Keurig coffee maker, Evans’ juicer sells for $699 on the Juicero site and does not require any cleaning. The juice packets available for $4-10 are simply popped into the juicer and then are pulled out after making a cup of fresh juice, without causing any peely-pulpy mess.

"I want to close the produce gap; I want people to have more servings of fruits and vegetables. This will help people have more access to it. I see this technology enabling restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, hospitals to be able to raise their standards. Today you can go into a fine dining restaurant and at best get an Ocean Spray cranberry juice or a Dole Pineapple juice. So by being able to offer this level of juice into their spaces, more people can be healthier," Evans spoke to a reporter at racked.

Juicero has been Evans’ dream and he was quietly working on it for nearly two years. Juicero has raised some $100 million over the last few years in three rounds of funding from eight different investors, including Campbell's Soup and Google Ventures.

Steve Jobs and his work inspire Evans; his new juicer is sleek and white, so it's easy to see the resemblance to Apple products. Evans knows that a juice company is no longer an innovative concept as it was when he started Organic Avenue back in 2002 but for him it’s about “raising the standard. This is the core."

Juicero operates on a subscription model through its website, so the company will be ordering fresh produce for its pouches based on sales. Presently, subscriptions are only available in California, through FedEx, Uber, or by pickup locations, but Evans says he predicts Juicero will eventually turn into an international company. Juicero subscriptions are expected to hit New York by the end of this year.