Beam Focuses On Hydration As It Brings In $5M Series A

Direct-to-consumer wellness brand beam organics has entered the hydration beverage space with the launch of its Elevate product after receiving $5 million in Series A financing.

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Boston-based beam was founded in 2018 by Kevin Moran and Matt Lombardi, both former professional athletes, to offer THC-free, phytocannabinoid-rich CBD and wellness products. The brand gained a following among other athletes and counts Danica Patrick, Baker Mayfield, Billy Horschel and Mat Fraser as part of its athlete ambassador network.

Elevate is a powdered stick hydration mix and is the first non-CBD wellness product category for the brand, Moran, beam co-founder told Crunchbase News.

“We were working on launching into the hydration category for 12 months,” Moran said. “We started in CBD and realized if we got a strong footprint there, we could take the brand and start accessing other parts of wellness. With Elevate, we are activating that next phase of hydration.”

Elevate provides electrolytes with a formulation composed of coconut water, himalayan sea salt, potassium bicarbonate and sodium hyaluronate with no additives, excessive sugars or fillers. It is for individual use in water and comes in three flavors, and can be purchased on the company’s website in both individual and variety pack boxes, beginning at $35.

C2 Ventures led the Series A and were joined by new investors, The Yard Ventures and Litani Ventures, as well as existing investors Obvious Ventures,  Camwood Capital and a group of athletes. In total, beam raised $12 million, which includes a $5 million seed round in 2019, led by Obvious, according to Crunchbase data.

For Moran and Lombardi, 2019 was beam’s first full year as a direct-to-consumer company. Net revenue grew 230 percent last year, and the new round of funding will be used for product and infrastructure development, adding employees and connecting with customers.

“We were fortunate to do a round with Obvious Ventures and bring in partners,” Lombardi said in an interview. “Last year with the pandemic, we were able to lean into the brand and look at pain points around sleep, stress and anxiety to scale the business. We are now growing significantly.”

The global electrolyte hydration drinks market is expected to reach $1.82 billion by 2025. The latest company to raise funding in the beverage space, beam is now joining companies like Gainful, a startup bringing personalization to the sports nutrition industry, which raised $7.5 million in Series A funding last month co-led by BrandProject and Courtside Ventures. In November, Cure Hydration, which is developing an organic, plant-based hydration brand, raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau.

Chris Cunningham, partner of C2 Ventures, was also an investor in beam’s seed round and said he was attracted to CBD products and liked the idea of a long-term brand of wellness beyond CBD.

“Matt and Kevin are leading a great team and have a good profile of former athletes. This is before crushing it from a revenue perspective,” Cunningham said. “I loved the idea of building something that people struggle with, such as sleep and recovery, and if the product did what it is meant to do, could create a new category. The fact that there is no THC; when the FDA does approve these products and it goes mainstream, then it is game over.”

Feature photo of Kevin Moran and Matt Lombardi, beam co-founders, courtesy of beam
Blogroll illustration: Dom Guzman