UPTIME Energy has acquired cold brew coffee maker RISE Brewing Co. in a deal that aligns two established independent brands in their respective categories into a fully integrated new platform. Financial terms of the transaction were not available.
Housed under a single combined unit, the two brands will share sales, marketing, finance and operations teams that serve over 40,000 points of distribution across the country. Connecticut-based RISE will continue to operate under its existing brand name with its existing product assortment and retail partners.
“This merger is an exciting milestone for both brands,” said UPTIME’s chairman Stephen Choi, who will lead the combined entity. “UPTIME and RISE share a vision of delivering premium, functional beverages that meet the evolving needs of our customers. Together, we are uniquely positioned to challenge the multinationals that dominate our categories and bring superior, healthier options to more people.”
Founded in 2015, RISE was one of the early brands to ride the popularity of cold brew — then a relatively new coffee concept to mainstream drinkers — from foodservice into conventional retail. Starting as a keg supplier for office accounts in New York City, the company launched a suite of canned cold brew drinks at grocery stores like Whole Foods, Target, Wegmans and The Fresh Market. Multiserve cartons and a line of standalone oat milk products followed later.
Speaking with BevNET this morning, RISE CEO and co-founder Grant Gyesky said the acquisition was ultimately an “easy decision,” as it allows RISE — which raised $28 million in 2021 and 2022 over the span of three separate rounds — to accomplish three years worth of growth goals “overnight” by addressing issues tied to distribution and profitability immediately. He cited a challenging economic climate for startup brands, in which prudent conservation of working capital has made top talent difficult to recruit and maintain.
The brand has contracted over the past year: according to Circana data for MULO plus c-store, RISE sales dropped 17% behind an 18.6% slide in volume during the 52-weeks ended January 21, 2025.
While the vision to build a healthy beverage platform brand remained consistent over the years, the horizon to profitability and efficiencies of scale remained far in the distance.
“We looked at ‘do we want to grind and try and build this internally for the next three years, or do we want to flip a switch and be right there, and then get into that next, much larger stage of growth immediately, where we’re running a profitable business,’” said Gyesky, who initially met Choi at Natural Products Expo West 2024. “And we’ve got the size and scale that we have always wanted, from headcount to revenue to points of distribution, to leverage with warehousing partners, distribution partners, even manufacturing partners. I think that was the big driver.”
With its unique-for-the-category screw top aluminum bottle, Los Angeles-based UPTIME Energy has maintained a foothold within a highly competitive space for over a decade (it has since expanded into cans), and arguably was ahead of the curve when it comes to looking beyond caffeine for added functionality from ingredients like L-theanine, ginseng and CoQ-10. Choi has been running the company as interim boss since the departure of CEO Ben Kim in November 2022.
Over the past year, the brand has lost ground to immediate competitors like Bucked Up and ZOA, with both volume and sales each falling around 15% year-over-year per Circana data through January 21, 2025. The brand holds a 0.16 share of the category.
Integrated into a single business unit, the two brands will be able to help shore up each other’s weaker areas: for RISE, it’s convenience retail, a sector Gyesky said the brand has only lightly dabbled in previously. The brand is hoping that a forthcoming new release — RISE Shaker, a “slightly more indulgent” dairy-free (oat milk and coconut milk) blended coffee drink in 13.7 oz. glass bottles, set to debut globally at Whole Foods on March 1 — can help it break into the channel.
Gyesky confirmed that none of RISE’s current distributors will be impacted by the acquisition, and it will work with UPTIME’s DSD network for c-store placement.
“A majority of our businesses run through the broad liners, which don’t have great reach into the c-store channel, and then we’ve watched a few other brands move into c-stores pretty aggressively and then be forced to retreat out of it,” said Gyesky. “We’ve eyed it more cautiously to make sure that we have the right distribution relationships and the right product to put on shelf before we really go after it. That’s what really drove us to create this.”
For Gyesky and the rest of the RISE team, the brand’s acquisition means different things. He declined to speak on the futures of others, but Gyesky himself will continue in an undefined leadership role, an opportunity he said has “reinvigorated” his passion to keep developing the brand.
“I’m excited about some of the iterations that we’re putting on our brand and some of the new products that we’re launching, but it’s certainly a point of reflection,” he said. “We’ve been at this now for 10 years, and it’s a very, very difficult journey to go from zero to where we are today. And so there are reflections of the grind and how challenging it is. And I think you ask yourself what would it be like to go back in time? Would you do it again?”
“And I think the answer for me is definitely yes. I’ve met incredible people, had incredible experiences, learned a lot, and I’m just excited that we have the opportunity to get back at it with a much more stable base.”
UPTIME was co-advised by boutique investment bank Fluential Partners of Los Angeles, and Green Circle Capital Advisors, a leading advisor to natural consumer products brands.