Alani Nu

If you look at the numbers, Alani Nu’s case as 2025’s Brand of the Year is a powerful one. The supplement and energy drink brand is on its way to clearing $1 billion in sales this year, joining an elite group that includes Red Bull, Monster and Alani’s parent company Celsius, which forked over $1.8 billion to buy the brand in February. The brand hit a new quarterly revenue record in Q3 at $332 million, with retail sales rising 114% year-over-year. And as of late November, it represents a 7.2 dollar share of the U.S. RTD energy category, an impressive 3.3 point gain from Q3 last year.

But those eye-popping stats risk overshadowing the other, powerful ways in which Alani has reshaped the energy category, and the ripple effects that have spread out across the entire beverage industry. The brand’s successful exit from Congo Brands to Celsius this year represents important validation for influencer-born drink ventures, showing that a new and untraditional model can result in a traditional big-ticket acquisition from a major strategic. Building upon the pioneering work done by Bang, Alani proved that leaning on indulgent flavors and organic social media marketing could help bring new consumers to the category – particularly women – who will follow the brand from niche nutrition and supplement channels into mainstream retail. That approach has done more than just drive Alani’s own popularity: it has shifted the way operators are viewing the market, as female-focused energy innovations from Bloom and Monster (FLRT) have shown. And while Alani’s beer distributor partners will undoubtedly miss the brand on their respective trucks, the roughly $246 million in distributor termination fees paid out by Celsius to bring Alani into the PepsiCo system has also confirmed the importance of those suppliers in creating the next big energy brand. 

Yet as much as this award is in recognition of the work done so far, Alani Nu’s ascent feels far from over. If anything, this honor seems to be an appropriate way of marking the end of the beginning of Alani’s story, and there’s still much more to go.