As it works to close out an active Series B funding round, PATH Water is trotting directly towards break-even revenue and ramping up international production.
According to an investment pitch deck shared with BevNET, the aluminum packaged water brand reported 2025 revenue is on track to surpass projections at over $75 million, up from $48 million in 2024. When asked to confirm the company’s revenue, PATH co-founder and CEO Shadi Bakour said the business is in the “process of updating our projections” and is “rapidly approaching” nine figures.
Dollar growth is coming as the brand has vastly expanded per-unit margins, with gross margin at over 40% on average, up from a low point of just 7% in 2022, Bakour said.
PATH’s footprint is now at roughly 75,000 retail doors and over 120,000 foodservice points of sale – serviced by a “purely” wholesale and broadline distribution network – with about 650 co-branding collaborations to boot. In total, 53% of revenue is now from foodservice, while 42% derives from retail and the remaining 5% comes via ecommerce.
The growth comes as PATH aims to reach consistent break-even revenue by either the end of the year or early 2026, with a goal to be cash flow positive by 2027.
Speaking this week, Bakour said the growth has begun to resemble a snowball rolling down a mountain, noting that early skepticism about the brand’s position as a beverage with a reusable bottle has given way to rapid international growth.
“Once we picked up enough speed and enough of a critical mass in the marketplace, then it was like ‘Okay, let’s make sure that this snowball is headed in the right direction,’” Bakour said.
To date, PATH has been backed by a wide range of institutional and individual investors, which Bakour credited with helping the business achieve its current momentum.
According to the investor deck and an accompanying email, backers include celebrities like Michael Jordan, Shakira, Ryan Seacrest and Kevin Hart, as well as major beverage companies like bottled water category leader Primo Water – which has invested over $5 million into the business and is in the process of integrating PATH into its ReadyRefresh DSD network.
Bakour said that PATH’s full time team is currently around 80 people and the company has managed to increase margins and drive velocities through frugal and focused strategy, rejecting the approach of “spend $5 to make $1” that many early stage and mid-size brands take.
“I think a lot of beverage brands just focus on grow, grow, grow at all costs,” Bakour said. “For us, that was not our strategy. We want to be very thoughtful about the way that we grow.”
While PATH has made aggressive marketing pushes – industry insiders may be familiar with their annual sponsorships at Natural Products Expo West – much of its awareness and growth has risen about through the far more ambitious licensing and partnership business model that places PATH’s products in premium hospitality, travel, corporate and entertainment venues.
Bakour said that the strategy has led to high visibility into the market, as the customized bottle designs still always include the PATH logo, whether they’re for SpongeBob Squarepants or Yellowstone National Park.
More recent licensing deals have seen PATH extend into the world of sports via partnerships with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche. In the case of the Nuggets, Bakour said the Nuggets home court, Ball Arena, reported a nearly 300% increase in revenue from bottled water sales after switching to PATH.
“That was a huge, huge win for us, to be able to show that people want our product and they’re willing to pay more for it,” he said. “And these arenas and stadiums are constantly looking for ways to drive overall revenue and incremental revenue, so it’s an absolute no-brainer for them.”
According to the pitch deck, PATH is also now pursuing additional multi-year contracts with NBA teams – although Bakour cautioned it’s a work in progress, but said that sports partnerships are one area where the company recognizes opportunity to grow.
Looking ahead, Bakour said that beyond continuing to do what’s working in regards to licensing and retail expansion, the company is also innovating around new categories and formats and is “playing around with some functional hydration products” as it looks to different ways to move PATH beyond still and sparkling waters.
The company is also now selling its reusable bottles on their own online, with a line called PATH Air. As the premium bottled water market has blossomed in recent years with brands like Yeti, Hydro Flash and Stanley benefiting from a TikTok bump, Bakour said PATH sees an opportunity to encourage reusability of its products while also reducing shipping costs for consumers by selling their own accessories.
“We’re filling this massive gap between your $40 Hydro Flask and your cheap plastic bottle of water that has PFAs, microplastics that leach chemicals, and destroys the planet,” he said. “We are filling that massive gap in the marketplace because we’re combining the sustainability of a reusable, recyclable bottle with the convenience of bottled water, and we’re doing it at a very affordable price.”