In 2020, Benedict Lim was making his own oat milk.

Those at-home experiments led him to launch his oat milk business, Oatside.

After 2 years, Oatside raised a $65M Series A and is sold in 18 markets globally. Here’s the story.

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🔥 Just for fun

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Benedict discovered plant-based milk because he loves coffee—he drinks 5 cups a day.

He felt that every type of plant milk had its own distinct taste.

And out of all the plant-based milks, he loved oat milk because it tasted better than the others, is more sustainable to produce, and had a similar texture to dairy.

But unlike almond and soy milk, oat milk had different taste or texture depending on the brand. This only made him dive deeper.

He’d make oat milk at home, playing around with different ingredients and extraction methods to get different flavors and texture combinations.

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👀 Seeing potential

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In the process, he realized that up to 90% of Asians are lactose intolerant, yet plant milk only held a 15% market share in Asia!

He also found out Asians have been drinking soy milk out of familiarity—not because they thought it tasted the best.

So, he wanted to launch a plant-based milk that tasted amazing and familiar to Asians.

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🥛 Preparing for launch

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He spent 6 months discovering the perfect taste and 1 year to build the in-house automated production line. By then, he had also left his job as CFO of Heinz Indonesia.

He tried and tested more than 50 types of oat milk before a winner emerged: a creamy, smooth, and malty milk—a mix of Horlicks, Ovaltine, and Milo.

In 2022, he officially launched Oatside. And it was a hit!

Their launch sold out on the first weekend, and over 1,000 people showed up to their public sampling event.

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🧠 But it wasn’t easy

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Oatside is loved today—your barista probably used it in their latest oat latte.

But even if they were sold out in their first week, getting cafes and consumers to switch to Oatside wasn't easy when they started.

So how did they do it?

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💪🏼 Anything for the best product

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In-house R&D is key to Oatside’s success.

They’re Asia’s first “full-stack” oat milk brand, and they control every part of the production and R&D process, from farm to table.

It was super expensive and risky to do this—especially for a young company like theirs. But, they wanted to create a custom and distinct taste and texture to win.

It also helps them stay consistent with the taste, texture, and quality their customers love.

They even source their own water! Since milk is 90% water, Benedict found a hole in the mountainside of Java in Indonesia and built a giant pipe to bring the water down.

He decided to share the pipe with artisanal spring water to the 72 homes there for free (since they had already spent a lot of money on it)—and became the world’s smallest utility company in the process.

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📢 Branding and marketing

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The second key factor? Distribution—a great product can only go so far without it.

Localization and branding. It’s more than just their chill-sounding name, “Oatside”. Has any other milk carton made you laugh?

Their packaging has funny, colorful cartoon illustrations with a bear as their mascot. You’ll even find cheeky “Bearisms” on their social media, like “People tell me to trust my gut, but that thing can’t even handle milk.”

They have a major focus on understanding and relating to local cultures, tapping into each culture’s humor while being hip and youthful.

The goal? “The way we are funny in English, we have to find a way to be funny in Korean (the local market)" to connect with the local market.

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Campaigns. In 2022, they launched the Oatside Breakfast Trail campaign, partnering with top Malaysian cafes.

For a limited time, the cafes served special breakfasts and beverages spotlighting Oatside’s versatility.

Their milk is creamy, allows natural coffee and tea notes to shine, while achieving a beautiful microfoam. Oh, and it’s yummy enough to drink on its own or use for other things, like cereal!

Anyone could dine in each cafe and complete a stamp card, with the chance to win a 3-month supply of Oatside.

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🌐 Regional domination

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Now, Oatside has raised $65M in Series A funding, led by Temasek Holdings and GGV Capital and hit an estimated $11.8M+ in revenue.

Oatside is also available at cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and online platforms across 18+ markets, focused on APAC.

And last year, they  even expanded to a plant-based ice cream range featuring flavors like Chocolate, Peanut Butter with Cookie Dough, and Coffee with Mini Chocolate Chips.