- Liquid Death, a canned water company known for having a punk style of branding, announced it raised $9 million in funding
Liquid Death — a canned water company that is known for having a punk style of branding — has raised $9 million in funding led by Velvet Sea Ventures. Liquid Death CEO & co-founder Mike Cessario told Business Insider that the company took its time to find strategic investors for this round.
Velvet Sea Ventures is a venture capital firm co-founded by Mike Lazerow, Kass Lazerow, John Giampetroni, and Matthew Giampetroni. The Lazerows are known as former executives at Buddy Media — which was acquired by Salesforce for $745 million.
Some of the other investors in this round included Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, GirlBoss CEO Sophia Amoruso, Toms executives Jake Strom and Blake Mycoskie, Thrive Market CEO Nick Green and existing investors such as Away co-founder Jen Rubio. Liquid Death is in the process of entering a number of brick-and-mortar stores starting with Whole Foods. And Liquid Death is expanding into the sparkling water market next month.
Liquid Death’s “Murder Your Thirst” campaign helped the company gain thousands of buyers who subscribe to weekly and monthly shipments of the canned water. And Liquid Death also told Business Insider that 20 of those subscribers got tattoos that were inspired by the brand.
Cessario said that Liquid Death is one of the “only non-alcoholic drinks” that sell to bars across the country. And the new “Tallboy” canned sparkling water makes the brand more competitive against brands like LaCroix. The 12-pack of regular or sparkling water costs $18.99 per pack through the company website.
The majority of the funding is expected to go towards capital intensive tasks involved in expanding into brick and mortar markets. And the company will use it on other marketing campaigns such as the benefits of not using plastic.
Liquid Death’s aluminum cans are made with 70% recycled material and is much more environmentally friendly than plastic bottles. Plus Liquid Death also donates 5 cents for every can sold to nonprofits such as 5 Gyres and Thirst Project. These organizations are known for plastic recycling and providing clean water to communities that need it, respectively.
