Cognitive wellness brand Graymatter Labs has raised a $1.3 million seed round as consumer investors continue to bet on wellness.
The round was led by Charlotte Tilbury and Apothékary backer Venrex Partners and sports-focused fund Apex, with participation from Palette Ventures, which has Ceremonia and BelliWelli in its portfolio. The funding will support team and assortment growth, including new varieties of Graymatter Labs’ plant-based nootropic drink mix, Bright Mind, to expand the brand’s consumer base.
Bright Mind is sold in direct-to-consumer distribution for $78.99 on a one-time basis or starting at $39.54 on a subscription basis. The drink mix features 27 active ingredients such as astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, rhodiola, red panax ginseng and maca. Jim Phillips, former VP of e-commerce intelligence firm Charm.io, and investor Novisa Petrusich launched Graymatter Labs in 2024 and have bootstrapped it up until now.
Koen Bosma, partner at Apex, is bullish on Graymatter Labs seizing upon a large opportunity for cognitive supplementation for athletes. “In elite sports, the brain is everything,” he says in a statement. “While muscles are trained and cared for daily, the brain is only beginning to catch up. With exceptional customer feedback, natural and clean ingredients and rapid growth and adoption under Jim and Novi’s leadership, investing in Graymatter was an absolute no-brainer for us.”
Phillips says Graymatter Labs didn’t raise money because it had to, but because it believes the moment is right for the brand to bolster growth. Already, it’s growing fast. The brand discloses its sales have increased 2000% year-over-year, and 90% of its customers are subscribers.
Phillips discovered nootropics nearly 15 years ago while working at office meal program startup Fooda, his first venture capital-backed experience, when the pressure to be productive pushed him into bad habits. “I was in over my head and didn’t know what I was doing,” he admits. “To try to compensate, I resorted to lots of stimulants and too many coffees, and it gave me the opposite effect of what I was thinking it would do. It actually made me more anxious and less productive. It got to a point where I felt that there had to be a better way.”
Diving into neuroscience, Phillips embraced meditation and experimented with adaptogens and nootropics, becoming an enthusiastic convert. He touted the benefits to his friends and family, but back then, they had no idea what nootropics were. For the record, they’re compounds like ginkgo biloba, caffeine and ginseng that people use to enhance acuity. During his stint at Charm.io, which ran from 2020 to 2024, he gained insight into the high-growth realm of wellness brands. The global nootropics market was valued at $18.48 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $73.11 billion by 2034, advancing at a compound annual growth rate of 14.74%, according to market research firm Precedence Research.
In 2023, Phillips began formulating Graymatter Labs’ drink mix, and it started to gain traction among people with attention deficit issues. The same year, at 39 years old, he had an infection of one of his heart valves that required open-heart surgery. It was a carpe diem moment for Phillips, and he decided to transition full-time to Graymatter Labs. After a rebrand in October last year that sharpened the brand’s content and design, its growth soared. Phillips says, “A lot of people are supplementing their mind for the first time and have to get educated on it.”
As the brand employs its seed funding, first on its product roadmap is a caffeine-free version of Bright Mind. It’s been requested by Graymatter Labs’ customers who’d like to give its supplement to their school-age children. The current formula contains 75 milligrams of caffeine. Phillips notes the caffeine comes from matcha and guarana, allowing it to release into the bloodstream slowly. He says, “I don’t want people to think it’s a caffeine supplement. It really isn’t. There’s some caffeine in there because caffeine is a great nootropic.”
Supplement startups have had a huge fourth quarter so far. “Don’t Die” biohacker Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint raised $60 million; women’s wellness brand Unfabled raised $1.7 million as it expanded its Boots partnership; and Cymbiotika raised $25 million to fuel a Target rollout. Along with Cymbiotika, the big-box retailer also launched wellness brands Arrae, Magic Mind and Alice Mushrooms, which recently closed an oversubscribed $8 million round. Beauty specialty retailer Ulta Beauty also deepened its ambitious wellness initiative with the addition of wellness brand Sakara.
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