PerfectTed has expanded its matcha sourcing network as it looks to mitigate shortages in Japan and meet burgeoning global demand for the trendy tea.
Having hitherto sourced all of its ceremonial-grade matcha from Japan, PerfectTed was now working with farmers in China and Korea, as well as in emerging markets such as Kenya, co-founders Marisa Poster and Levi Levenfiche told The Grocer.
Despite matcha production nearly trebling between 2010 and 2023 according to Japan’s agricultural ministry, spiralling demand – coupled with a poor harvest in 2025 – meant PerfectTed was no longer able to meet its sourcing needs from Japan alone, they said.
However, thanks to time spent on the ground across “Japan, China, Korea and other South Asian countries”, PerfectTed now had “incredible access to the most consistent supply chain in matcha around the world”, Levenfiche said.
Adopting a multi-origin sourcing strategy would also help future-proof the brand’s supply of matcha amid an ageing farming population in Japan, he added.
PerfectTed continues to source the majority of its matcha from Japan, and its founders rejected any suggestion that sourcing from elsewhere could harm its reputation for quality.
“It’s down to us to educate people properly,” Poster said. “Many people might not even know this, but matcha originated in China and it was actually brought over to Japan by a monk around 800 years ago. China created it, and Japan perfected it.”
While Japan remained the gold standard thanks to its “meticulous growing methods”, matcha from other countries was fast improving thanks to technological improvements and greater information sharing from the Japanese government, Poster said.
It was therefore easy to envisage a future in which matcha aped coffee – first grown in Ethiopia before being exported across the globe – and became “region agnostic”, she predicted.
“I always imagined matcha would become similar to coffee because it’s a crop,” she said. “It can be grown anywhere depending on the climate and altitude.”
$100m annual revenue forecast
Amid soaring global demand for matcha, PerfectTed has grown sales by over 532% in the space of two years [FEBE Growth 100 June 2025]. While its founders declined to put an exact figure on present-day revenues, they predicted the business would hit an annual run rate of $100m (£74m) by the end of 2026.
“We’ve grown so quickly that forecasting is never an easy thing,” Levenfiche said.
Growth would come across all channels, with PerfectTed now stocked in more than 40,000 distribution points globally, Levenfiche said. However, particular areas of focus this year would be growing DTC and international sales, he revealed.
“Internationally, we’re just scratching the surface,” he said. “We’ve built really good distribution in the Netherlands. We’re in the Middle East, and in Australia we have great listings. But we haven’t touched the US or mainland Europe, besides Benelux, really. So there’s massive growth opportunities there.
“Online, we’re just getting started. We actually don’t even have an e-commerce team at the moment, which is something we are looking at.”
PerfectTed was founded by Levenfiche and his brother Ted Levenfiche – along with Poster – in 2021. The brand rose to prominence after appearing on Dragons’ Den in 2023, securing investments from both Steven Bartlett and Peter Jones in return for 5% stakes in the company.
Its matcha-based products include energy drinks, ready-to-drink iced lattes, Nespresso-compatible pods, powders and single-serve sachets. They are stocked in major UK supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Asda, Holland & Barrett and Selfridges.
The brand also supplies matcha to wholesale and foodservice partners including high street café chains Joe & The Juice and Caffè Nero.
Minority stake sale
Last year, PerfectTed sold a minority stake to VC fund Felix Capital at a valuation in excess of £140m.
Bringing on Felix Capital was about helping the company adopt “more of an institutional mindset” towards growth and scale, Levenfiche said.
“Steven [Bartlett’s] capital is in his amazing network of creative thinkers and great entrepreneurs,” he said. “With Felix it is about bringing a kind of institutionalisation to the business. It’s about how we go from being a business doing £30m in sales to £300m in sales, and bringing on partners that really understand how to scale from both a team and financing and structuring perspective.”
Funds would be used to further grow PerfectTed’s matcha supply network, expand its product lineup and build “the world’s largest and smartest database of matcha” to improve traceability, Poster said.
There will also be further investment in growing headcount. Currently, PerfectTed has around 50 staff, but this figure is set to shoot up past 80 by the end of 2026.
“We are understaffed because we’ve grown so quickly, and now we’re doing an amazing job of catching up,” Levenfiche added.
PerfectTed is the fastest-growing tea brand in UK retail, with sales up 494% year on year [IRI 52 we 24 January 2026]. Last year, off-trade sales of its powders, sachets and RTDs hit £5.4m [NIQ 52 we 6 September 2025].
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