California canned cocktail and hard kombucha maker JuneShine has received a seven-figure investment from private equity firm InvestBev.
The capital infusion will go toward marketing JuneShine’s products and expanding its portfolio line.
“We’re grateful to have InvestBev be part of the team,” JuneShine co-founder and CEO Greg Serrao said in the announcement. “We have big plans for the future as we continue to build a better-for-you alcohol platform, and we are confident they will be value-added partners and advisors for JuneShine as we enter our next stage of growth.”
InvestBev chairman Brian Rosen added: “JuneShine has everything we look for in a portfolio company: great-tasting products, a strong team, and a distinct point of view.
“The team not only created a new category in organic hard kombucha, but they have been a driving force in upleveling the alcoholic beverage industry’s commitment to sustainability and transparency,” he added. “We are thrilled to partner with Greg and welcome JuneShine into the InvestBev family.”
The private equity investment follows rumors last October that the company was for sale. In October, Serrao denied a Reuters report that JuneShine was exploring a sale process.
At the time, Serrao wrote: “We’re always exploring ways to grow faster. We have a very high rate of sale on our cocktails, and on our kombucha, and a very low ACV [all commodity volume] on both. And we’re the largest independent alcohol company in SoCal. We’re always exploring ways to accelerate our distribution to close the delta between a high ROS and lower ACV. But there is no pending transaction currently.”
Reuters noted that the sale could net $100 million and that the company was expected to generate $40 million by the end of 2023.
InvestBev bills itself as the “nation’s largest private equity firm dedicated to the adult beverage industry,” managing $185 million in assets. The firm’s previous investments include THC-infused beverage brand Cann, Ten to One rum, Nomadica canned wine, e-commerce platform Speakeasy, and direct-to-consumer alcohol delivery marketplace ReserveBar.
JuneShine previously raised $24 million as part of a Series B funding round completed in November 2021 and an undisclosed sum as part of a Series A round in June 2021 with celebrities such as Diplo and Whitney Cummings. In 2020, the company raised $6 million in funding.
Serrao and Forrest Dein founded JuneShine in June 2018 as a hard kombucha brand targeting better-for-you-seeking consumers. The brand has since expanded its portfolio to include ready-to-drink, spirits-based canned cocktails and a light lager brand called Easy Rider. The company’s products are sold in 28 states.
Serrao and Dein previously described 2023 as a year to “grow up a little bit,” sharing their vision for JuneShine has “two businesses” addressing “different occasions.” Through June, hard kombucha remained the majority of JuneShine’s business (about 80-85%), with its RTDs expected to reach 20% share of the company’s business by the end of 2023.
In 2022, the company increased its share of the hard kombucha segment +5%, now claiming more than one-third (36%) of the segment’s dollars, Serrao previously told Brewbound, noting that share growth would likely continue to increase as players who flocked to the segment bowed out.
Serrao said hard kombucha has the potential to become an “omnipresent product” in total bev-alc, similar to Mike’s Hard Lemonade or Twisted Tea.