Go behind the scenes with Clevr after Meghan Markle investment

After her and her husband’s exit from the Royal Family in 2020, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, invested in Clevr Blends, a wellness brand which creates coffee alternatives named ‘Superlattes’. In a press release from 2021 announcing her backing of the brand, Meghan spoke of her desire to back female-led businesses, saying: “This investment is in support of a passionate female entrepreneur who prioritises building community alongside her business. I’m proud to invest in Hannah’s commitment to sourcing ethical ingredients and creating a product that I personally love and has a holistic approach to wellness. I believe in her and I believe in her company.”

The Duchess of Sussex spoke of Hannah Mendoza, the co-founder and CEO of Clevr, who has previously paid tribute to the royal for her meaningful contribution to her company.

In 2021, Ms Mendoza opened up about how Meghan changed Clevr’s trajectory. “Having the Duchess as a mentor and an adviser has been amazing,” she told Fortune.

“She’s so smart, she’s so passionate, and she has such a good heart. Having her as an adviser has been one of the most incredible things to come out of all of this.”

Her comments came shortly after the Duchess had invested in the startup and she explained that Meghan’s investment had seen the brand’s audience grow, with the likes of “schoolteachers, shift workers, and busy moms” learning about their products via the royal.

However, while Meghan’s influence was impactful, it was not gone about in the traditional sense. Instead of posting on social media or making media appearances, the Duchess was a quiet investor, with her love for Clevr’s products only reaching social media through her friends Oprah Winfrey and Spanx founder Sara Blakely, who let their own followers know about gift baskets, which included the lattes, were sent by Meghan.

“We’re very grass-roots, where we started from, and I never in a million years would have thought things like this would be happening,” Ms Mendoza said.

More recently, the “difference” Meghan has made for the brand was thrust under the spotlight, when Clevr released a video showing a “behind the scenes look” at how the company has grown since its launch, with special thanks paid to the Duchess.

Ms Mendoza recalled the humble beginnings of the brand before saying “everything changed” when Meghan approached Clevr. She said: “Meghan ended up becoming our first investor, advisor and biggest advocate.”

“Our small but mighty team was 100% not ready for this and ended up selling out for two months,” Ms Mendoza explained before saying their millions of sales since have largely been due “to the power of women uplifting women”.

The video showed Meghan alongside Ms Mendoza with Clevr’s range of wellness products, which are now not only sold online but also through mainstream retailers.

Speaking earlier this month, Christina Garibaldi, host of the Royally Us podcast, discussed the video and the impact Meghan has had on the company. She said: “I think it was really interesting to hear from the founder what kind of impact this can have on a brand. We talk about the ‘Meghan effect’ and the ‘Kate effect’ — the economic phenomenon the royals bring with them whenever they support a brand, or wear an outfit, those sorts of things.

“But to hear directly from the founder of this company about how Meghan’s investment has helped them was really interesting and really uplifting, and to see how Meghan has made a difference in this brand.”

Her co-host Christine Ross recalled the brand “almost instantly” being talked about by “A-List celebrities” following the announcement of Meghan’s support.

“It really does show having the backing of a Royal Family member — or ex-member — does make a difference,” she said.

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Clevr had been established four years earlier as a pop-up coffee bar that travelled up and down the California coast.

But Ms Mendoza, who moved from the UK to the US state aged 18, wanted to make her wellness products more accessible to “folks that might only have 30 seconds in the morning”.

She launched the current version of her business — which sells at-home versions of the drinks she’d been selling from a travelling coffee bar — in 2019, a year before Meghan and Prince Harry left the UK and settled in Montecito, California.

The Duchess, who has long been interested in wellness and even wrote about it on her now-defunct blog, The Tig, was right next door to Ms Mendoza and Clevr in Southern California.

“There was a genuine connection with the brand and with the product, and that’s always how the best relationships start,” the founder recalled.

The size of Meghan’s investment remains undisclosed, and details of her involvement with the brand are sparse, though Ms Mendoza said the Duchess became an important adviser and mentor.

“I’m just really grateful,” she said, “to be part of this narrative of savvy female investors investing in female founders.”

Royal commentators have noted the Duchess’s positive impact on the company, describing her appearance in the social media clip as “uplifting”.

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