Seeking to expand its sales and marketing team, sparkling yerba mate drink maker CLEAN Cause announced today it has raised $7 million in a series A round.
Speaking with BevNET, CLEAN Cause founder and CEO Wes Hurt said the round was entirely financed by private individuals from the Austin, Texas area, where the nearly five-year-old brand is based.
“Austin has become such a CPG hotbed and there’s a culture where a lot of the guys who have discretionary income to invest like to get in on these deals [with early stage companies],” Hurt said in a phone call today. “So we were able to fold together a lot of great guys. They are very wealthy, but they have great hearts so it aligns with our mission.”
According to Hurt, the brand’s social mission was a key driver in securing financing. The company donates 50% of its profits to sober living scholarships to help individuals struggling with substance abuse and addiction. Hurt himself is a former drug user who has been in recovery since 2014 and founded CLEAN Cause as a means of giving back. To date the company has awarded more than $425,000 through 850 scholarships.
Currently available in about 6,000 retail locations nationwide — including Whole Foods, Central Market, H-E-B, Natural Grocers, Fred Meyer, Safeway and Target — CLEAN Cause is preparing to add thousands of new accounts over the next 12 months. Until now, the company had been operating without key sales and marketing leaders, Hurt said. The funding round, he noted, will help the company to expand its team beginning with two new key hires: Sam Wilson as VP of sales and Samantha Ostroff as VP of marketing.
Wilson comes to the company from Bang Energy where he served as VP of sales and distribution. Prior to Bang, he was a senior director of sales and distribution with Red Bull. Ostroff most recently served as the senior director of marketing for jewelry brand Kendra Scott.
As well, Hurt said the company will add several new director level positions, including distribution director and data director, bringing CLEAN Cause’s total headcount to approximately 50 employees.
Hurt noted that as the brand grows and evolves, so does its social mission. When CLEAN Cause launched, he said that all proceeds were donated to sober living programs in Austin. Since then, the company has opted to fund local programs in all of its markets with its “We Give Where You Swig” campaign.
“Someone in Oregon might not want to support something that’s going back to just one city or one town, drug abuse is an epidemic across the country,” he said. “So now we allocate the funds and scholarships in the region the product is sold or the revenues are generated. It’s a national brand with a local giveback is what I like to tell people.”
Much of the brand’s expansion will be focused on the West Coast and Pacific Northwest regions, Hurt said, as consumer awareness for yerba mate is stronger in those regions thanks to the popularity of brands like Guayaki. Hurt said the company intends to take a “mile deep, inch wide” approach to growing in those territories, though he noted that the brand is also strong in its Austin backyard and in select Northeast markets.
In addition to footprint growth, the financing will also go toward innovation, Hurt added. The company is preparing to launch a mango flavor in January and is currently planning to add an additional three to five flavors. The company is also developing a zero-calorie line which will likely launch later in 2020.
Although CLEAN Cause launched with multiple product lines, including a premium water, the brand has shifted focus solely to yerba mate which consistently led sales.
“Our goal now is to drive brand awareness,” Hurt said. “I like to say we cracked an egg and now we’re going to cook it.”