OXIGEN, maker of a line of oxygen-enhanced waters, announced today it has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round, backed by individual investors including pro athletes, musicians and venture capitalists.
The round follows the addition of Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry as an investor and partner in August. As Curry moves into the role of the global face of the brand in advertising campaigns, fellow NBA star Kevin Love and country music singer Brett Eldredge join this round as fellow investors.
Additional participants include Ezralow Companies CEO Bryan Ezralow, JMG Capital principal Jonathan Glaser, Casamigos Tequila co-founder and Discovery Land Co. CEO Michael Meldman, Hudson Pacific Properties CEO Victor Coleman, film producer Neal Mortiz, Pritzker Private Capital CEO Anthony Pritzker, author Daniel Yergin and former congressman Dick Gephardt.
According to founder and CEO Blair Bentham, the “vast majority” of the Series B participants previously invested in the brand’s 2018 Series A round, which raised $13.5 million. The financing, he said, has been a lengthy process marked by frequent extensions and rising goals (initially OXIGEN aimed to raise $10 million and was prepared to close the round around March, but upped the ante when Curry began talks with the company in the spring).
“We really took the opportunity to secure some very strategic investors in the areas of, obviously sports, but also in marketing and in business that allows us to really tap into a network that we didn’t necessarily have access to in the previous round or in the growth in the company over the last 24 months,” Bentham said.
While Curry has embraced becoming the face of OXIGEN, with his image being included in point of sale displays and in television ads, other high profile investors such as Love and Eldredge will not serve as brand ambassadors per se. However, Bentham said they have already helped grow brand awareness by promoting the brand on their social media channels and in interviews. Additionally, Curry and Love’s involvement has opened up sales opportunities to NBA teams, he added.
Other investors hailing from the finance and private equity world, Bentham said, have been able to expand OXIGEN’s networks with manufacturers and suppliers, helping the company to “streamline logistics.” Investor Mike Meldman, who is also the founder of hydration beverage Recover 180, has similarly provided OXIGEN with “different opportunities” through his ownership of real estate and resort firm Discovery Land Co.
“We have helpful shareholders that are not on day-to-day management of the company or operations, but are really opening up opportunities to the brand to advance the ball faster,” Bentham said. “Whether it be distribution, relationships for marketing assets or otherwise.”
Most of the financing, Bentham said, will be primarily used for marketing as OXIGEN aims to position the brand as a mainstream product. This year, the brand launched a series of television ads, which have run on ESPN as well as online, focused on the slogan of “Recover & Rise.” The spots highlight essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the campaign also includes a giveback program where the company will donate $5,000 to a winning applicant’s charity of choice.
The financing also comes as the brand prepares to transition its nationwide distribution from predominantly wholesale to a broad DSD network for its roughly 47,000 accounts. In recent months, the brand has expanded into chains such as 7-Eleven, CVS, Shop Rite and Stop & Shop.
Though OXIGEN is competing in a crowded category, Bentham said he believes the brand is becoming increasingly competitive as it has seen sales grown nearly 400% year-over-year. In addition to focusing on mass availability across all channels, the brand is also looking to go deeper within existing accounts through line extensions — including new 1.5L and 23.7 oz. sports cap packaging formats which launched earlier this year.
The brand has an additional SKU in development with a patent pending bottle that is expected to launch in 2021. The new product would likely focus on at-home consumption in larger packaging formats, Bentham said.“We’re always working with our retail partners and obviously our distributors across the country and are trying to develop specific SKUs that their consumers really want,” he said. “So we’re making these decisions based upon feedback from our retail partners and distributors.”