HOLY CAP Pushes Medicinal Mushrooms Into the Lickable-Treat Format Churu Owns

Lickable treats built a category on palatability, not nutrition claims, with Inaba's Churu purées defining the format's ceiling. HOLY CAP is wagering that gap can carry a functional-nutrition brand: dual-extracted medicinal mushrooms squeezed into the same tube mechanics that made Churu ubiquitous. Six months after a quiet Amazon debut, the company is now pushing into Chewy, specialty retail, and a SuperZoo booth to see if the bet holds.

HOLY CAP expands from Amazon into Chewy and Healthy Spot

Founded in Hong Kong in 2022 by Brian Cheng, Barry Cheng, and Rosa Byun, HOLY CAP built its base in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia selling powdered mushroom, superfood, and green-lipped mussel supplements before designing a lickable line, Squeezees, specifically for a US entry. The line launched on Amazon in February 2026 and showed at Natural Products Expo West the following month.

Squeezees ships in three formulas: Daily Ritual (duck, tuna, and bonito flakes with turkey tail and cordyceps extracts), Happy Gut (sardine and lamb lung with chaga and lion's mane), and Calm & Chill (mackerel, turkey, and chicken heart with reishi and lion's mane). Each 15-gram sachet is formulated without gums, artificial preservatives, or fillers.

The company says its mushroom powders come exclusively from the fruiting body, dual-extracted through hot water and alcohol distillation. Formulas were developed with veterinarian Barbara Royal, founder of Chicago's Royal Treatment Veterinary Center, and manufacturing runs through a Thailand-based partner.

As of this month, the company says it has moved beyond its Amazon base into New York's Pop Up Grocer and is expanding into Chewy and Healthy Spot's specialty shelves. HOLY CAP is exhibiting at SuperZoo, the industry's largest US trade show, running August 12th through 14th at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Why the lickable format has never carried a functional-mushroom claim

The lickable-treat category has one dominant format, built for something other than function. Inaba's Churu purées, launched in Japan in 1989 and now sold worldwide, made the squeeze tube ubiquitous by optimizing for palatability and feeding ritual, not therapeutic ingredients. That gap is where HOLY CAP is positioning itself.

Functional mushrooms, meanwhile, have already built a pet category of their own, just not in this format. Cannanine sells an eleven-mushroom CBD soft chew. Fera Pets sells a USDA-organic, ten-species mushroom powder scooped over food. Zesty Paws runs a 14-mushroom soft chew, and Lolahemp sells a five-mushroom chew without CBD.

Two more entrants crossed over from human wellness. Real Mushrooms built its name in human supplements before extending mushroom chews and capsules to dogs and cats, and FreshCap did the same with Shroomies, a seven-mushroom soft chew it launched after pricing the US pet-supplement opportunity at $800 million. All six compete on the chew, capsule, or powder aisle, where compliance depends on an owner remembering a daily dose.

HOLY CAP's bet is that pairing the ingredients with the format removes that friction. Founder Brian Cheng told Pet Food Processing that treating is “a daily ritual” pet owners already do without prompting, which gives functional dosing a built-in occasion instead of a habit that has to be created from nothing.

The ingredient story doubles as a quality argument aimed at the rest of the mushroom-supplement aisle. Much of the mushroom powder sold into pet supplements is mycelium grown on grain substrate, which dilutes the beta-glucan content that gives medicinal mushrooms their function. HOLY CAP says its supply comes exclusively from fruiting bodies, sourced through a single cultivation partner in China and dual-extracted for potency, a differentiator against a category that has grown fast enough to attract diluted product.

The category math supports the bet, if unevenly. Global pet supplements are projected to grow from $3.33 billion in 2026 to $5.47 billion by 2034, a 6.34% annual pace, according to Fortune Business Insights.

HOLY CAP's own release cites APPA figures showing that a majority of dog owners and roughly a third of cat owners now seek daily health-supporting products, alongside ADM survey data that most pet owners already spend on preventive care. That trend lines up with the broader supplement forecast: more owners buying functional add-ons rather than treating supplements as a last resort.

SuperZoo and retail expansion will test whether the format sticks

The near-term test is retail placement. Chewy is the general-marketplace test: whether HOLY CAP's clean-label pitch can compete for shelf space against established lickable brands without the curation a specialty retailer provides. Healthy Spot is a narrower audience test, selling into pet owners already primed to pay for premium, ingredient-forward products.

SuperZoo, running August 12th through 14th at Mandalay Bay, is the industry's largest annual buyer show, and HOLY CAP's booth there will be its first real test of distributor and retail-buyer interest beyond the direct-to-consumer channels it has used so far. A strong showing typically converts into wholesale accounts. A quiet one leaves the brand dependent on Amazon and its own site.

The bigger question is whether the format itself can carry a functional claim at scale. Lickable treats have succeeded by being indulgent, not medicinal, and owners may not associate a squeeze tube with the same seriousness as a capsule or a vet-recommended chew. If HOLY CAP's SuperZoo and retail results are strong, expect established mushroom-chew brands, and possibly Churu itself, to test their own functional lickable line. If they're weak, the lickable format stays what it has been: a treat, not a delivery vehicle for anything beyond flavor.

Source: HOLY CAP company announcement

This news brief is based on a company-submitted announcement. The Underbite verifies claims where possible but cannot independently confirm all details.