Tiny teams up with the world’s #1 health podcaster to bring yerba mate to the masses, targeting the $344 billion U.S. health beverage market
VICTORIA, British Columbia – Jan 25, 2024 – In a fresh and distinctive contribution to the beverage market, Tiny (“Tiny” or the “Company”) (TSXV: TINY) has joined forces with the world’s most popular health and science podcaster, Dr. Andrew Huberman, to complete a majority investment in Mateína, a leading Canadian organic yerba mate brand. Mateína’s founders, Nicolas Beaupré and Elodie Simard, will maintain their leadership while leveraging the partnership with Tiny and Huberman to drive Mateína’s growth as it launches in the U.S. As of today, Mateína’s entire product line is now available in the U.S. via drinkmateina.com — including a new sugar-free option that was co-developed with Huberman.
Mateína was born out of a lack of low-sugar and organic Yerba Mate options in the market and is now widely available across Canada at leading retailers like Whole Foods. Cultivated in partnership with a fourth-generation farming family in Misiones, northeastern Argentina, the brand offers a diverse array of organic, sustainably farmed yerba mate products. These include non-carbonated, lightly sweetened cold beverages in a variety of flavors (original lemon, peach passion, and grapefruit guava), loose leaf teas, and Mateína’s new sugar-free option — a uniquely formulated, one-of-its-kind cold brew beverage with 120 mg of organic caffeine derived solely from yerba mate.
Made from the South American Yerba plant, yerba mate is celebrated for its energizing and health-boosting properties. Lesser known, emerging data suggest the plant also has appetite and blood sugar regulatory properties similar in mechanism to Ozempic via Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) induced appetite suppression at the level of gut and brain. Other compounds in and/or stimulated by consumption of yerba mate carry strong antioxidant properties.
The preferred caffeine source of Lionel Messi, Zoe Saldaña, and even the Pope, yerba mate is cherished worldwide by millions for its powerful ability to improve concentration, mental clarity, aid digestion and physical endurance, without the common side effects often associated with other sources of caffeine or other ergogenic (performance enhancing) compounds.
“Yerba mate has been my preferred source of caffeine for more than three decades,” said 48-year-old Dr. Huberman, best known for hosting Huberman Lab, which is regularly ranked the number one health podcast in the world and in the top 10 of all podcasts worldwide. “I often discuss yerba mate’s health benefits — emphasizing its high antioxidant content, its role in managing blood sugar, and its possible neuroprotective effects. Personally, I consume it daily for these reasons, and also because it tastes great and has been a part of my life since I was a child growing up with an Argentine father. As widely popular as yerba mate is internationally, it’s less known by the average American because most yerba mate drinks in the U.S. are too sugary or are low-quality making them bitter in taste. Also the smoked varieties of yerba mate should be avoided since they are unhealthy. Collaborating with Mateína to develop a non-smoked, sugar-free version of cold pressed yerba mate was a thrill and I’m so excited to be able to share this drink with the world. I see it as a truly peerless beverage in terms of its positive effects on mind and body.”
From a niche favorite in North American wellness circles in 2017, yerba mate has in recent years transformed into a daily ritual for millions in the US and Canada — highlighting its journey from obscurity to mainstream popularity. This shift underscores yerba mate’s unique health benefits and its status as a natural, energizing drink. Mateína, with its focus on quality organic products, is well-suited to cater to this growing demand for healthier, natural beverages, aiming to broaden yerba mate’s reach in the US and beyond.
“We envision a world where yerba mate is a highly accessible and health-forward beverage that is consumed by hundreds of millions of people in the US and around the world, in the same way coffee and tea are today,” said Elodie Simard, co-founder of Mateína. “Partnering with Tiny and Dr. Huberman enables us to introduce Mateína globally while also underscoring our commitment to sustainable, organic farming practices in Argentina.”
Andrew Wilkinson, co-founder of Tiny, added, “Tiny has been a huge supporter of Andrew Huberman and we are incredibly excited to partner together on developing and bringing to market this incredible yerba mate brand to the US. We’re confident that Mateína will make a significant impact in the U.S. health beverage market, bolstered by Dr. Huberman’s expertise and the scientific merits of yerba mate.”
In the upcoming year, Mateína, in collaboration with Tiny and Huberman, is set to expand its product line with a variety of functional yerba mate offerings, further strengthening its presence in the global health beverage market.
About Mateína
Mateína, a pioneer in the Canadian Yerba Mate market, is devoted to delivering high-quality, organic yerba mate beverages. Upholding a strong commitment to sustainability, the company proudly sources its yerba mate directly from family-owned farms in Argentina. The diverse product range, which includes sugar-free and low-sugar options, skillfully combines the health benefits of yerba mate with the deep cultural heritage of South America, introducing a novel and distinctive approach to the energy drink landscape. For more information, visit drinkmateina.com.
About Tiny
Tiny is a Canadian-based investment company focused primarily on investing and acquiring majority stakes in businesses that it expects to hold over the long-term. The Company is structured to give maximum flexibility to operating management teams by maintaining a focus at the parent company level on only three areas: capital allocation, management, and incentives. This structure enables each company to run independently and focus on what they do best, within an incentive structure that is designed to drive results for both the operating business and ultimately for Tiny and its shareholders.
Tiny currently has three principle reporting segments: Digital Services, which provides design, engineering, brand positioning and marketing services to help companies of all sizes deliver premium web and mobile products; E-Commerce Platform, which is home to a complementary portfolio of recurring revenue software businesses that support merchants, as well as digital themes businesses that sell templates to Shopify merchants; and Creative Platform, which is comprised primarily of Dribbble, the leading social network for designers and digital creatives, as well as a premier online marketplace for digital assets such as fonts and templates.
For more information, please visit www.tiny.com or refer to the public disclosure documents available under Tiny’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.
About Dr. Andrew Huberman & Huberman Lab
Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning.
Huberman is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award in 2017, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision. His lab’s most recent work focuses on the influence of vision and respiration on brain states such as fear and high attention focus and developing rapid and effective tools for mitigating stress and improving sleep and other physiological metrics.
Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals including Nature, Science and Cell and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover and other top media outlets.
In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.
Alongside hosting the Huberman Lab podcast, Andrew Huberman is the co-founder of Scicomm Media.
For more information about Huberman Lab, please visit www.hubermanlab.com. For more information about Scicomm Media, please visit www.scicommedia.com.
