In early 2023, Busy Philipps walked into her local New York City coffee shop and bought her first pack of Behave candy. A longtime sweets lover, the actress—known for shows like Dawson’s Creek and movies like 2024’s musical remake of Mean Girls—spotted the bright bag of sour gummies on the shelf and was intrigued by the label boasting low-sugar and low net-carb counts. After a year as a loyal customer herself, Philipps announced Tuesday her investment into the company, making her an advisor and equity owner alongside founder Mayssa Chehata.
“When they reached out to me through my team, and said we are looking to have someone come on… I was like, ‘I know this candy, I have this candy in my pantry! Yes, I would love more of it for free,’” Philipps told Forbes with a laugh. The deal marks Phillips’ first-ever equity investment in a startup, though she and a Behave spokesperson declined to disclose her percentage stake.
Chehata founded Behave in 2019 after working at Daily Harvest and feeling like customers were “desperate” for cleaner food options. At the time, Chehata had started to implement healthier foods into her own diet, but found few offerings in the candy aisle. So she joined forces with chef Elizabeth Falkner and together they spent nights and weekends in Falkner’s Brooklyn apartment researching and developing a new low-sugar candy brand. They released their first prototype with Pop Up Grocer in 2019 to prove the concept. After selling out of a month’s worth of inventory in just three days, Behave went on to raise $1 million to launch to the public in August 2020.
Today, still powered by that pre-seed funding, Behave sells gummy candies directly to consumers through its website and in brick-and-mortar stores including Wegmans and Erewhon. Behave has booked seven figures in lifetime revenue (they declined to share exact numbers).