Love Island Host Maya Jama Joins Swedish Pea Milk Brand Sproud as Investor

British TV presenter Maya Jama has become an investor and co-owner of Swedish pea milk innovator Sproud to drive its global expansion.

Maya Jama, host of ITV’s ultra-popular show Love Island, has invested in Sproud, the Malmö-based producer of pea milk products.

It makes Jama a co-owner and ambassador of the plant-based milk business, which is working to continue its brand expansion amid Europe’s growing appetite for milk alternatives.

“I’m really excited to become a co-owner of Sproud. There’s a lot to love – the products taste amazing, and the packaging is eye-catching, too, but ultimately I like what the company stands for in terms of health and sustainability,” said Jama, who also hosted this year’s BRIT Awards and was named on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list for 2024.

“The Swedish connection also really appealed to me,” she added. “My mum is half-Swedish and I have very happy childhood memories of summers in Sweden with my grandparents.”

Sproud CEO Sara Berger declined to share details about the investment sum or Jama’s stake in the company, but told Green Queen: “The deal will enable Sproud to expand its marketing and brand efforts. This will feed into its current focus for the business which is to increase brand awareness and continue to grow.”

Sproud takes on UK’s thirst for oat milk

Sproud’s five-strong range of core products comprises unsweetened, barista, sugar-free barista, vanilla, and chocolate flavours, alongside two iced latte SKUs. They’re all based on yellow split peas, which the brand claims gives its milks a better nutritional profile than other dairy alternatives.

The company looks to be targeting a share of the UK’s oat milk market, which underwent a PR hit earlier this year when online influencers and media outlets raised concerns about its health credentials, including spikes in blood glucose, low protein content, the inclusion of additives, and its effects on bloating. While most of these were unfounded or unproblematic, they still cut through to the public.

Pea milk doesn’t face those challenges, with yellow peas bringing a higher protein content and the lack of oats keeping the blood sugar questions at bay. For example, fellow Swedish alt-milk company Oatly’s barista oat milk has 7g of carbohydrates and 1g of protein per 100g, versus Sproud Barista’s 3.7g of carbs and 2g of protein for the same amount.

“Consumers are demanding more when it comes to taste and nutritional content, and only very few brands are able to deliver to a high level. This year, we’ve seen a big focus on sugar, for example, with many loyal oat milk customers now jumping ship,” explained Berger. “In the long term, I think this is a healthy shift, which will lead to solid and long-term growth for individual brands.”

One of the biggest advantages of oat milk over other plant-based milks is its sustainability credentials, with oats using much less water than the likes of almonds and linked to much lower freshwater eutrophication (the pollution of waterways from nutrient-rich pollutants) than rice milk.

But Sproud has been recognised by CarbonCloud as the milk alternative with the lowest environmental impact. Its unsweetened version produces just 0.28kg of CO2e per kg (following a 9% reduction in its average climate footprint last year) – in comparison, Oatly’s Semi oat milk has a footprint of 0.47kg of CO2e per kg.

The six-year-old startup, which exports its products to 30 countries, is now to expand its global footprint. “Our aim is to significantly increase Sproud’s brand awareness in the UK and beyond, and Maya will help us further normalise plant-based choices for everyone – whether in the supermarket aisle or at the coffee shop counter,” said Berger.

Sales growth for Sproud amid alt-milk decline in the UK

Jama joins existing investors VGC Partners, Findeln Holding, and Dream Beverage, who have contributed to the company’s total funding amount of £14M ($18.2M). It comes weeks after it closed its latest round at $1.4M.

The startup posted a turnover of $4.1M in 2023, achieving a 37% growth in annual revenue amid its push for profitability. And this momentum has continued in 2024, with Sproud witnessing a 50% rise in sales in the first half alone. “We’re now fully in a scale-up phase, driven by a clear strategy, an exceptional team, and a strong commercial focus on delivering value for our consumers and business customers,” said Berger.

“The past couple of years, we have seen a lot of success in Europe, with the UK now our biggest market. We’ve also seen significant growth in the US this year,” she added.

Sproud is the preferred plant-based milk at all 250 Joe & The Juice stores in Europe, and sponsored the Latte Art Live competition at this year’s London Coffee Festival. It’s also part of Plant Based Food Finland, an 18-member consortium headed by Oatly’s public affairs manager Niklas Kaskeala to drive up plant-based consumption in the country.

But while the company looks to widen its reach, in the UK – where it has an office – sales of plant-based milk have been middling. According to Circana data crunched by the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, milk alternatives saw both volumes and units drop by 9% between 2022 and 2023.

And while overall sales value flatlined (up by 0.8%), this was likely due to rising costs – since January 2022, the average price of plant-based milk in the UK has risen by 9% (around two-thirds higher than dairy).

Berger blamed part of this decline on market saturation. “The past few years have seen numerous alt-milk brands pop up and the food giants launch products of their own,” she noted. “I think we’re past the era of alt-milk as a hype product, where consumers shop around to find their match and are jumping on trends.”

But on the flip side, milk alternatives take up the largest share (43%) in the British vegan market, and are consumed by 35% of people in the country now. And the decline in unit sales may also be levelling off, falling by only 1.4% in early 2024 compared to 2023’s weekly average of 9%.

Still, oat milk reigns supreme, responsible for 53% of the UK plant-based milk market share. Pea milk represents a fraction of this, highlighting the ground Sproud and fellow pea milk producers Mighty and The Good Pea Co need to make up.

Berger revealed that Sproud is preparing to launch a new product this autumn too. “We’re excited about the next 12 months, especially now with Maya onboard,” she said. “Our key focus is to grow our brand awareness globally and to get our products into the hands of even more customers.”