Yuyo

Making supplements accessible to the Mexican consumer

In Mexico, 50% of annual deaths, totaling around 400,000, are linked to high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Though not solely to blame, the prevalence of soft drinks highlights the need for educating Mexican consumers and implementing new policies to reduce health risks.

Let's dive in.

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Imagine this

• You live in a city with high temperatures, where people are always on the move, where hydration and nutrition often take a backseat.

• Juggling a demanding job, workouts, and social commitments can leave you drained and without your daily vitamin and electrolyte needs.

• Traditional drinks and supplements are expensive, inconvenient, and often packed with unwanted sugars or preservatives.

• Looking for options to meet those needs, you come across Yuyo.

• They offer accessible and healthy supplements at your local shop and online.

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Explain it like I'm five

Yuyo is an accessible and healthy supplement consumer brand.

• Their simple packaging allows consumers to take and drink anywhere.

• They produce and test all their products in their own facility and lab in Mexico.

• Formulas have been carefully crafted to provide hydration and multivitamins.

Founders aim to make healthy and tasteful supplements a routine choice for the Mexican consumer.

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The ABCs

• Industries: Consumer goods, Health

• Headquarters: Monterrey, Mexico

• Year Operations Started: 2021

• Team Size: 17

• Raised: Undisclosed

• Investors: Goal Capital

• Business Model: B2B (retail) & E-commerce (B2C)

Other players:

• Electrolit

• Suerox

• Redoxon

• Emergency C

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Background check

What we like:

• Approach: Most of Yuyo's competitors’ packaging resembles medicine, costs more, and uses complex language when describing their products. Yuyo provides similar benefits as traditional options but at a lower price and is focused on delivering a superior flavor while maintaining a friendly and approachable communication style.

• Strategic Partnership: They recently teamed up with Goal Capital, backed by Mexican media conglomerate "Multimedios." Their plan includes launching marketing campaigns to connect with a significant audience that Yuyo has yet to be able to reach and boost Yuyo's brand awareness.

• Accessible: Based on founders market research, consumers can save approximately $14.34 MXN (per drink) compared to other hydration products like Suerox, Electrolit, Gatorade, Powerade, and Nuun (tablet). Additionally, when comparing Yuyo to vitamin products such as Emergen-C, Redoxon, Aderogyl Efe, Cboost, and Citrus C, consumers can save an average of $32.6 MXN (per box).

• Points of purchase: As of now, Yuyo has over 1,275 points of sale across Mexico. They want to make supplements more accessible by introducing their vitamins and hydration products at “Abarrotes,” unlike most competitors who primarily sell their products in pharmacies. According to DENUE, there are around 1M of abarrotes in Mexico. As well, approximately 20% of their sales occur directly through their e-commerce website.

• Health: More than 30% of children in Mexico are overweight or obese. Authorities have started new initiatives like labeling products with excess sugars to reduce the consumption of unhealthy drinks and snacks. However, it is still very early to determine their efforts.

Road Blocks:

• Mexican Culture: Most Mexicans need to be educated about the benefits that supplements and vitamins can present to us. Educating customers about the benefits of their products is essential. In fact, according to Latinometrics, Mexico is one of Coca-Cola's major consumers, making it hard to change that soda-with-a-meal culture.

• Cash Flows: The majority of Yuyo's clients are retail businesses. This can present cash flow challenges because these businesses usually have extended payment terms of up to 45, 60, or even 90 days, which can harm Yuyo's operation. Also, negotiating with these clients is incredibly hard because of their size and amount of SKUs they manage.

• Regulatory Compliance: Their team has to remain dedicated to ensuring their products meet and exceed all regulatory standards to provide customers with safe and trusted options.

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The Architects

• Eugenio Martinez, Co-Founder & CEO. Previously @ Agnes Eyewear.

• Hugo Martinez, Co-Founder, Standford MBA. @ Acapella.

Request intro with founders by sending an email to gabriel@readrunway.com

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Headlines Corner

• Motto, a Brazilian motorbike rental startup, raised USD $50M Series C to expand its last-mile logistics ecosystem. (FinancialTimes)

• Kunzapp, a Mexican and Chilian-based startup specializing in software management, secured USD $750,000 in their Investment round. (Contxto)

• Databits, an Ecuadorian online education platform specializing in data science and AI, raised USD $600,000 during its pre-seed funding round. (Forbes)

• CleanLight, a Chilean startup dedicated to producing sustainable hardware, secured USD $3.2M in debt deal. (LatamList)

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Founders Bookmarks

The best tools and resources we came across this week.

• AI Score My Site determines whether your website would achieve a high ranking on AI-based search engines and, if not, provides help to fix it.

• Some of the best traits that founders share.

• Two contradictory elements about AI investors seem to agree on.

Building in latam? Send us your pitch deck for the opportunity to be featured in Runway.

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