Beverage company Liquid Death announced a new funding round and $1.4 billion valuation as it becomes one of the fastest-growing beverage companies in recent years.
Here's a look at the new investors, old investors and what's next for the company hoping consumers "murder your thirst."
What Happened: Liquid Death announced the closing of $67 million in financing. The effort comes after several previous rounds that saw backing from investment companies and celebrities like Tony Hawk.
"Liquid Death has become the fastest growing and leading brand across the water, flavored sparkling water, and iced tea categories," Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario said. "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."
The company’s new investors include several distribution companies. Among the backers is one firm being touted as the top distributor in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
SuRo Capital SSSS is a new investor in the company with follow-on investments being done by Science, Inc, Gray's Creek Capital Partners and Live Nation Entertainment LYV.
New celebrity investors in the new round include actor Josh Brolin, NFL star DeAndre Hopkins, "The Chapelle Show" co-creator Neal Brennan, musician Derrick Green of Sepultra and comedian Jim Jefferies.
Existing investors in the company include Hawk, Wiz Khalifa, Steve Aoki, Machine Gun Kelly and Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin.
Live Nation previously invested in the company and announced an exclusive partnership for Liquid Death products at its events and festivals.
"We are just getting started @LiquidDeath..@CelsiusOfficial market cap is $20B & @MonsterEnergy is $62B," Science, Inc co-founder Pether Pham tweeted.
Anthony Pompliano, who is best known to many as a Bitcoin bull, is also an investors in Liquid Death from previous rounds.
"One of my best investments is a company that puts water in a can. That is so ridiculous, yet awesome at the same time," Pompliano tweeted.
Pompliano credited Pham, Jason Williams and Mark Yusko for helping to convince him in investing in Liquid Death and going along with the idea.
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What's Next: In its funding round announcement, Liquid Death said it had retail sales of $263 million in 2023. The company expanded to 113,000 retail doors in the United States and United Kingdom.
The last year marked the third consecutive year with triple-digit growth for the company.
Liquid Death’s iced tea products launched last year. They became the second largest ready-to-drink tea on Amazon by sales within a couple of months after launch.
The company also recently launched Death Dust hydration sticks, marking an entry beyond the ready-to-drink beverage categories of Liquid Death.
"What began as appealing to inbound interest has culminated in a leading group of strategic investors from finance, entertainment and distribution backgrounds," Cessario said.
Cessario also said the appointment of seasoned sales executive and White Claw alum Stephen Ballard will help "enable us to continue scaling a world-class distribution network to murder thirst and plastic bottles around the globe."
Funding from the new round will go towards increased product innovation and scaling operations, according to the company.
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