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  • Liquid Death Valuation Hits $1.4B, Serenity Kids Raises $52M 🍼

Liquid Death Valuation Hits $1.4B, Serenity Kids Raises $52M 🍼

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CPG WIRE
March 12, 2024

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Here’s what we’re getting into:

  • Style Capital buys Autry 👟

  • Sanzo lands celeb investors 🫧

  • Love Wellness expands into body care 🆕

  • Whoa Dough rebrands 😍

  • Barrell Bourbon heads to the UK 🥃

Liquid Death Valuation Hits $1.4B 📈

Liquid Death, the Los Angeles-based beverage juggernaut that debuted in early 2019, has raised $67M in fresh funding at an eye-popping valuation of $1.4B. This is double their valuation from 2022 when the company secured $70M in Series D funding. 

Participants in this round include a number of institutional players like SuRo Capital, Science, Inc., and Live Nation, along with a handful of celebrities like Josh Brolin and DeAndre Hopkins, and some of the leading beverage distributors in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. 

Per Mike Cessario, Liquid Death’s founder & CEO, “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,”

Liquid Death continues to hit impressive milestones and prove that it’s here to stay. In 2023, retail scanned sales surpassed $260M, and the company delivered its third consecutive year of triple-digit growth. The company has expanded to 113,000 retail doors across the US and UK, and, per SPINS, is one of the fastest-growing brands in the water and iced tea categories. 

With Liquid Death’s valuation ballooning, what’s their next move? They have a few different options: 

  • Form a strategic partnership with one of the beverage giants. Celsius and C4 Energy recently did this with PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper, respectively. It’s hard to argue with the results. Both brands are growing rapidly. 

  • Sell outright to one of the beverage giants. This is the least interesting option but with their valuation doubling in two years, it’s a very real possibility that KDP, KO, or PEP takes Liquid Death off the board. 

  • Find a private equity partner like Blackstone or Advent International that has the capital and know-how to take Liquid Death north of $1B in annual sales. 

More on the fundraise here.

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Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Milan-based private equity firm Style Capital has acquired a majority stake in premium sneaker brand Autry. The PE firm will own 50.2% of Autry which is being valued at 300M EUR. Style Capital has been accumulating wins lately. Prior to selling Zimmermann for 1B EUR late last year, Style Capital was a key figure in turning Golden Goose into a global footwear brand. Fashion Network

  • Consumer-focused investment firm Humble Growth has acquired a significant minority stake in wellness brand Momentous. Founded in 2018 by Jeff Byers and Erica Good, Momentous has grown revenue over 300% over the past year. Business Wire

  • Ingredients firm SunOpta is selling its frozen acai and smoothie bowls business to Sambazon for an undisclosed sum. Just Food

Fundraising

  • Serenity Kids, a leading shelf-stable baby & toddler food brand, has raised $52M in Series B funding from Stride Consumer Partners. Serenity was founded in 2018 and retails at over 18,000 stores across the U.S. Stride has backed a number of successful CPG brands like Brew Dr., Chomps, Odele, Skinfix, and others. PR Newswire

  • Asian-inspired sparkling water brand Sanzo has added Steve Aoki and Simu Liu to its cap table. Two great additions for the fast-growing beverage brand. Twitter

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Love Wellness, the personal care & women’s wellness brand founded by Lo Bosworth, is launching a new body care collection that features a firming mask, detoxifying oil, and massage roller. Beautiful. WWD 

  • Beekman 1802 (now majority owned by Eurazeo) is targeting Gen Z with a new skincare range that features vegan goat bio-milk as its hero ingredient. The collection, dubbed Shine Free, has three products. PR Newswire

  • Popular fashion label Cult Gaia has opened a stunning new store in Miami’s Design District. This is their fifth store thus far and a sixth could be opening in Pacific Palisades in the near future. WWD

  • South Korean skincare brand Innisfree unveiled a fantastic packaging refresh. Innisfree now has a novel visual identity that doesn’t really look like anything else on the market. Badass. The Industry

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Popular YouTuber Danny Duncan has launched a better-for-you energy shot brand called Matador Energy. Each shot features 185mg of caffeine along with a variety of B vitamins and a nootropic mix. Matador Energy was developed with Night Ventures, the same folks who helped launch Feastables. Interestingly, Matador is available exclusively at Spencer’s. PR Newswire 

  • Whoa Dough is rolling out a whole new look at Expo West. You’ll notice they’ve transitioned away from a large vertical logo (which took up a lot of space) and added product images for each flavor. A massive improvement IMO. NOSH

  • Another win for paper bottles in wine & spirits…Aldi is launching two private label wines in paperboard bottles. These bottles are 5x lighter to ship than glass ones so their carbon footprint is considerably lower. These bottles, as evidenced by Absolut and Gyre & Gimble, can look pretty good. The Drinks Business

  • Carbone Fine Foods, one of the fastest-growing pasta sauce brands in the US, just launched a new line of Alfredo sauces. PR Newswire

Data 🖥️

  • Luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose had a big 2023. Net revenue increased 18% to €587M while adjusted EBITDA rose 19% to €200M. The brand could hit public markets later this year. The Industry

Distribution News 🚚