Healthy non-alcoholic beverage company Liquid Death announced it had closed $67 million in funding from strategic partners and new investors at a $1.4 billion valuation. The distributor investors include the number 1 distributors in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Washington and top distributors in several other key markets. The new institutional investors include SuRo Capital and follow-on investors Live Nation, Science, Inc., and Gray’s Creek Capital Partners. Other notable investors in the round include actor Josh Brolin, DeAndre Hopkins, Neal Brennan, Derrick Green, and Jim Jefferies.
Liquid Death hit $263 million in retail scanned sales through registers last year, and the company expanded to 113,000 retail doors across the US and UK. According to SPINS, the company hit a triple-digit increase for the third consecutive year, becoming the fastest-growing top water and iced tea brand.
The company’s newest product line, iced tea, and flavored sparkling water, also grew significantly last year. A few months after its launch, Liquid Death became Amazon’s second-largest ready-to-drink tea based on total sales. And Liquid Death’s flavor line is the top dollar contributor in the convenience channel for the flavored sparkling category despite being in the market for under two years.
This funding round will be used for product innovation as a multi-category beverage platform and scaling operations. The company has been seeing higher-than-expected retail demand for Liquid Death’s new sparkling water and iced tea flavors, which are expected to launch this spring.
This funding news follows the launching of Death Dust, which is Liquid Death’s hydration sticks and first core product beyond the ready-to-drink beverage category. Liquid Death also auctioned off the side of half a million cases through the viral “Biggest Ad Ever” campaign, with the winning bid going to Coinbase for more than $500,000.
KEY QUOTE:
“Liquid Death has become the fastest growing and leading brand across the water, flavored sparkling water, and iced tea categories. We continue to see extremely strong consumer and retailer demand and are proud to have raised a strategic, oversubscribed, ‘up’ round to fuel our growth. What began as appealing to inbound interest has culminated in a leading group of strategic investors from finance, entertainment and distribution backgrounds. This round, coupled with the appointment of Stephen Ballard, a seasoned sales executive and White Claw alum, will enable us to continue scaling a world-class distribution network to murder thirst and plastic bottles around the globe.”
– Mike Cessario, founder & CEO of Liquid Death
