Extracting polyphenols from berries turning into healthy drinks - Sean Sears, Clever Fruits

As Demo Day is on the horizon, the Food Innovation cohort is preparing for the final stages of the program. With October 13th coming fast, the SBC team decided to meet up with some of our top FoodTech start-ups.

Fruit is one of the most valuable food products we grow yet excessive fruit waste has become a large issue in our world. Founder, Sean Sears, decided to develop Clever Foods to help fight food waste and strengthen human health.

Clever Fruits is an intelligent fermentation business that extracts the nutrients from the parts of fruits that would otherwise be wasted to create supplements and functional drinks. Their goal is to extract beneficial polyphenols, which are compounds packed with antioxidants, increase their potency and use them in drink products to enhance health and wellbeing.

Sean founded the company very serendipitously after buying a winery firm. One day, he tried an old wine from the cellar, and despite the potent acidity, he found that it made him feel very balanced. Sean was curious to understand why it was having this effect. After some investigation and consultation with scientists, they found it was a specific fermentation method that was able to enhance the benefits of the fruits in the wine. Along with the team of scientists, Sean has spent the last five years perfecting this method of turning a fruit into a powder that would have health benefits. Now, Sean is seeking out fruit capitals like Tasmania, which have ample supplies of super fruit to make products with.

Sean looks for fruits with a rich supply of polyphenols. Extensive research has found  grapes, cherries, and apples are the best to use in the process and will provide a high level of health benefits compared to other fruits.

Clever Fruits’ business model is predicated on partnerships. At SBC’s Demo Day, Sean is excited to build more connections with the farm, fermentation, and agriculture community. He is hoping to develop more relationships with the fruit supply industry and many functional drink market players as well. By the end of Demo Day, they plan to combine their aspiring partners with their fruit waste program to build an ecosystem ready to serve their customers.

Interested in hearing more of how Sean is changing the fruit industry? Register to attend Demo Day in-person: https://lu.ma/cim1gco3 or attend Demo Day online here: https://www.startupbootcamp.com.au/demo-day/fi22

Watch the full interview here: