Headlines

As 2017 comes to a close, we recap the top five investments and acquisitions in the beverage market over the past year.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to break into the food and beverage business… but it doesn’t hurt. Just ask Vital Proteins founder Kurt Seidensticker; something’s BRUing in the trendy world of bone broth; is basil seed an ingredient to watch in 2018?

At BevNET Live Winter 2017 in Santa Monica, several entrepreneurs, some who sold stake in their company for private equity investment and some who left it on the table, offered their personal experiences dealing with the question of whether to stay independent or not.

Aloe vera water brand Aloe Gloe is launching a new low-calorie sparkling sub-line formulated with functional ingredients, including aloe, ginger and turmeric.

A year after launching functional iced tea brand Role Tea, Mike Johnson has a simple piece of advice for young beverage entrepreneurs guiding their own startup ventures: “Learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible.”

Purpose Tea launches in Albertson’s and Market Street stores; Humblemaker partners with Los Angeles Distributing Company; Soylent goes wide in California 7-Eleven stores; Sunniva Super Coffee grows presence in grocery

DRY Soda Co. founder and CEO Sharelle Klaus declined to reveal the size of the investment, but noted that it was 50 percent larger than the company’s previous funding round from earlier this year.

In an official statement addressed to “guests and customers,” which was posted to its website and social media accounts and shared with BevNET, Juice Served Here CEO and co-founder Alex Matthews announced that the Los Angeles-based brand, founded in 2013, is now closed.

Nestlé Waters North America today announced the sale of ready-to-drink iced tea brands Tradewinds Tea and Sweet Leaf Tea Company to Dunn’s River Brands, a portfolio company of private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners based in Texas.

In the face of the growing anti-sugar movement, juice brands are responding by refining their offerings and attitudes towards the formulation, marketing and processing of their products in divergent and innovative ways.