How PerfectTed Turned Matcha into a Mainstream UK Category

PerfectTed makes matcha drinks and powders for a mainstream audience. Founded in London in 2020 by Marisa Poster, Teddie Levenfiche, and Levi Levenfiche, the brand was built on a simple observation: matcha had existed for 800 years, and the UK had almost none of it. In five years, PerfectTed has landed in Tesco and Holland & Barrett, secured a Dragon's Den investment, and is building the supply chain infrastructure for a category that barely existed when they started.

The challenge: A massive market with no playbook

Marisa arrived in London in 2020 from New York, where she had been running on caffeine: Red Bulls, energy drinks, double espressos, while managing ADHD and anxiety. A friend who had visited Japan told her about matcha. High caffeine, no jitters, no crash. "What the hell have I been doing?" was her reaction.

Within 45 days of landing in London and moving in with co-founders Teddie and Levi, she had started the business. The observation was hard to ignore: matcha had been consumed in Japan for eight centuries, and the UK had virtually none of it. If the category could be made accessible, better taste, better education, better product, there was a large and undeveloped market waiting.

The barriers were real. Most people who had tried matcha had experienced badly made versions of it. The taste problem was a sourcing problem: cheap, low-grade powder brewed wrong. And unlike coffee, which has decades of Western infrastructure built around it, matcha had nothing equivalent. Sourcing from Japanese farmers, moving tonnes of powder to the UK, and building a supply chain from scratch was expensive and full of early mistakes.

"Having non-drinks experience has been the number one reason for our success, because we think outside the box. We don't think like a traditional food and beverage business."

The build: Against the grain

Every early adviser told PerfectTed to start small. Launch in independent stores. Build slowly. They did the opposite.

Before the brand had a physical product, it had an Instagram account. A buyer from Holland & Barrett sent them a DM and offered 450 stores. Marisa and Teddie accepted, then worked backwards to build the product to fill them. In the same early period, Dragon's Den called. They pitched, practised, and walked out with a deal.

The brand-building philosophy was equally unconventional. Rather than investing in paid media, PerfectTed built its audience through earned coverage and stunts designed to spread on their own. For London Fashion Week, Marisa showed up at Somerset House and walked her own green carpet. A Sabrina Carpenter lookalike stunt drove over 1.5 million views on TikTok. A fake tube campaign circulated without a media spend behind it.

Underpinning all of it was Marisa's obsession with brand identity. Advised early on by Grenade founder Al Barrett to "wear the f***ing t-shirt," she built PerfectTed's visual identity around a single shade of green: Pantone 2256C. She taught herself graphic design to execute it. Every brand touchpoint, every office wall, every public appearance became that colour. She carries the product on stage at 10 o'clock at night. The founders and the brand became indistinguishable from each other.

"I feel like from the beginning our identities were ingrained within the brand."

The category grew as the brand grew. When PerfectTed began buying from a Japanese supplier at volume, he used that confidence to double down on his own fields and build a new factory. PerfectTed is now working with the Japanese government to develop the infrastructure and standards the matcha category still lacks.

The fuel: Capital for the opportunities ahead

Fast-growing brands hit a capital problem many don't anticipate. Strong sales don't reduce the need for working capital. They increase it, and they increase the speed at which it's needed. Every new retailer, every seasonal production run, every product launch requires inventory committed months before the revenue arrives.

PerfectTed reached this point and went to Wayflyer.

"People think that because you're growing super quickly it means that you don't need money. But what it actually means is that you need more money to grow, and you need it a lot quicker. We've been able to have a conversation with Wayflyer and say, 'Guys, we need more money. Not because we're struggling. We need more money because we've got massive opportunities here.'"

That distinction matters. Capital deployed into an opportunity is different from capital deployed to stay afloat. For PerfectTed, Wayflyer has been the partner for the former.

"We would be in deep sh*t without them."

The ambition behind that relationship is not modest.

"I want to build a billion-pound brand. I want to build a unicorn. I genuinely believe we can do that."

Interested in following in PerfectTed's footsteps? Wayflyer has funded over 6,000 businesses worldwide with $6 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes and access funds in hours. Start your application today.