When Steve Magami describes his blueberries, he sounds less like an agriculturist and more like a luxury car salesman.
“They actually pop when you bite into them,” the Fruitist CEO told Fortune. “They’re so firm and crispy, you’ve got to try it to know what I mean, because we’ve never seen anything like this in berries.”
The growth has created a billion-dollar berry brand, backed by Ray Dalio’s family office and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which just led a $150 million funding round in the company. Magami didn’t want to comment on Dalio’s investment, but noted the office “isn’t out there making investments in so many things publicly, and so this is certainly something we take a lot of pride in.”
“That was a legacy game for him,” Magami said with a smile. “It was unbelievable. So we’re excited for him to help us get the message out.”
That message is clear but simple: Take something ordinary—blueberries—and reengineer it for consistency.
“We wanted to put an end to berry roulette,” Magami said. “One day you buy a pack, and it’s great. The next day it’s mushy or moldy or bland. We wanted to build a brand that guaranteed a great experience every time.”
That quest began in private equity. Magami spent the first decade of his career financing biofuel projects before realizing the same logic around optimization could apply to food, seeing an opportunity to unlock “the potential of elite new varietals”: blueberries bred to maximize flavor and firmness. The health-conscious need not worry, Magami emphasized: Breeding giant blueberries is quite different from injecting them chock-full of GMOs, like popular grocery brands might do.
Typical blueberries are made and shipped haphazardly, Magami said, with no accountability for quality. In the classic model, small farmers ship fruit to packers, who sell to distributors, who sell to retailers, meaning there is no alignment; packers and distributors “don’t have skin in the game,” Magami said.
“That stifles innovation,” he added. “This has been a sleepy industry with low margins.”
Fruitist’s model flips that hierarchy. The company owns the full value chain, from proprietary varietals—patents on particular blackberries—to global farms to data-driven logistics.
For a company obsessed with perfection, the logistics are dizzying. Fruitist operates farms in eight countries, from Peru’s “natural greenhouse” coast to Oregon, Morocco, Egypt, and China’s Yunnan province. The goal is to offer seamless, year-round supply.
“We built the infrastructure, the data foundation, and now even algorithms that help predict optimal quality and yield,” Magami said.
The company currently sells in over 12,000 stores and more than 40 countries, but J.P. Morgan’s investment will go toward expanding operations in eight of those countries, building cold-storage infrastructure and automating processes around harvesting and distribution.
‘The world was snacking unhealthy’
Fruitist’s blueberries may look like produce, but Magami insists they’re part of a snacking revolution.
“The world was snacking unhealthy,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to bring something better. It’s nutrient-dense, enjoyable, and easy to eat on the go.”
To that end, Fruitist recently launched grab-and-go “snack cups,” which are individual packs of fresh blueberries. The company’s internal research suggests the healthy snacking sector could reach $100 billion in an $800 billion global snack market.
Even the current GLP-1 drug boom is working in Fruitist’s favor.
“The data shows GLP-1 users are eating virtually less of everything except fruits and vegetables,” Magami said. “They want to look better and feel better.”
But Magami argues consistency, not luxury, drives consumer loyalty, and that people are willing to pay more not to have to play “berry roulette.”
“We want consumers to feel like this is a reliable product every week of the year,” Magami said.
