From Zero to Unilever in 32 Months: Grüns and the Power of Daily Ritual
How did a daily gummy brand become one of the fastest consumer wellness brand outcomes in history?
Headline portfolio company Grüns, a three-year-old nutrient support gummy brand, has been acquired by Unilever. The outcome marks one of the fastest paths from product launch to exit in consumer health and wellness history: just 32 months.
Congratulations to Founder and CEO Chad Janis and the entire Grüns team on this exciting next chapter. With Unilever behind them, a daily ritual that millions already love is about to reach many more.
Why Grüns
Headline has been investing in consumer brands for more than 30 years, backing companies like Sonos, The RealReal, Farfetch, and Groupon from scrappy startups to household names woven into everyday life. That history produces a specific kind of pattern recognition for what generational consumer brands look like early, often before the broader market has caught on. It shaped how we evaluated Grüns, and what we found was remarkable.
The brand first came on our radar when our early-stage investment team stocked our office with Grüns’s signature, colorful packs. We evaluated the company for our new, nearly $1 billion Growth Fund last year and the signals were clear: in just a year post-launch and with an exceptionally lean team, Grüns had scaled to nearly $300 million in annual run-rate revenue with a constantly improving product and a devoted customer following. Remarkably, that scale came with discipline: customer acquisition was efficient, gross margins were best-in-class, and the business was profitable.
The deeper we looked, the more our conviction sharpened:
The product is a daily habit, not a one-off purchase. People take vitamins every day – and they eat gummies because they taste great. Grüns combines wellness, taste, fun, and convenience into a daily ritual. 96% of customers enjoy their gummies four to six times a week and 80% of customers take them daily. This is the kind of behavior that produces exceptional loyalty: Grüns cohorts retained at rates that would be enviable to many software companies. That level of integration into everyday life is rare and difficult to replicate.
The business model is durable. Unlike single-ingredient supplements, Grüns is built around staple consumer needs: nutrient support, immune system support, cognitive support, and energy support. The company sells through DTC, Amazon, and national retailers, giving it diversified distribution and multiple vectors for growth.
The brand is distinct and self-sustaining. The umlaut is instantly recognizable. The teddy bear is iconic. And critically, the brand does not depend on a singular influencer or trend. Instead, Chad and his team are marketing wizards who have built a voice that speaks transparently and a brand that people fall in love with.
The form factor is a platform. A pack of teddy bear gummies may seem simple, but there is real value in this unassuming packaging. This format drives loyalty, increases repeatability, and extends naturally into new benefit areas and demographics. When we first invested, Grüns had one product: the adult green gummies. Since then, they’ve launched Kids, Sugar-Free, Nütrops (cognitive support), Immün (immune system support), Jüced (energy support / pre-workout), and a number of limited-time flavors (Grinch Punch was a Headline office favorite). Each new product opens up a new consumer segment, increases average order value, and gives existing customers more reasons to stay.
They’re a best-in-class team. Much of this comes back to Chad. He is direct, relentless, and deeply focused on product quality, execution, and bringing out the best in people. He has assembled some of the finest talent in this industry and they, in turn, have rallied around a shared commitment to product quality and customer impact.
What Happened Next
We led Grüns’s Series B in May 2025. From the start, the Grüns team exceeded our expectations. And we went in with high expectations.
Within weeks of launching with their first retailer, Grüns became the number-one supplement brand on its shelves. The retailer was so impressed that they accelerated their timelines to stock additional SKUs ahead of their standard annual reset. Other major retailers followed, expanding Grüns into thousands of storefronts across the country, including Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Costco.
Looking Forward
Grüns is the first exit from Headline’s IV Growth Fund, which launched with a new dedicated team in late 2024. The strategy is built around a concentrated fund, a small and focused team, and the full weight of Headline’s global platform and relationships. The Grüns outcome is an early and meaningful proof point for that approach, and for the kind of conviction-driven consumer investing that has defined Headline for more than three decades.
We asked Chad to reflect on the partnership:
“Headline has been the ideal partner in our scale-up journey. You can tell a lot about an investor by how they show up when things are moving fast. Headline matched our intensity from day one. They believed in the product, they appreciated the team, and they understood our purpose. Most importantly though, they’re visionaries. You need visionary partners who exercise unrelenting belief and support. I’m grateful Headline was a part of our story.”
Congratulations again to Chad and the entire Grüns team. The world is about to eat a lot more gummy bears.