Functional beverage startup Wet Hydration has closed a $4.5 million funding round, backed exclusively by private investors, as the brand looks to amp up its market presence this year with new innovation and key new personnel hires, including a former Celsius sales executive.
Launched in 2020 by founder and CEO Spencer Altschul, the Las Vegas-based brand produces a line of functional hydration drinks with varieties like Glow (immunity support), Boost (energy), Refresh (daily vitamins) and Refresh (“ultimate hydration”).
Wet Hydration is sold in around 1,500 retail doors nationwide and online, with accounts including Kroger banners, Albertsons banners, New Seasons, Bristol Farms, Central Market and United Supermarkets, among others.
This latest round of funding, sourced primarily from individual investors, follows a $1.5 million raise last year that coincided with a brand refresh that moved the drinks into a 12 oz. can format with a new visual identity.
Now, Altschul says Wet is preparing for a slate of new product launches as it looks to grow its door count and head further into the Eastern U.S. market.
“We’re really trying to drive home the functional aspect of the brand,” Altschul said. “Aligning that with great tasting flavors, innovation is a big forefront for us with this raise…. We’re staying in wellness, obviously, but [it’s about] being able to branch out from just hydration.”
At this year’s Natural Products Expo West trade show last month, Wet previewed some of the new innovations that the brand is preparing to roll out this Spring, including a protein water (called Build with a kiwi passionfruit flavor profile) and new, non-functional canned still and sparkling waters.
Beyond the SKUs sampled at the brand’s Expo booth, the company will also be introducing a probiotic water and a relaxation-minded Lemonade flavor made with ashwagandha and L-theanine.
To help amp up operations and get these new products out to the market, Wet has also hired former Celsius EVP of sales for North America Jon McKillop. McKillop spent over four and a half years at the energy drink brand before leaving in December 2020 to his most recent role as VP of Sales for wholesale at 1-800-Flowers.com.
McKillop brings Wet’s full-time headcount to seven employees and Altschul said he will be pivotal to helping scale the business this year, citing his existing connections with retailers and knowledge of manufacturing, distribution sales and marketing will be a significant boon for the small brand.
“He scaled Celsius from the ground up,” Altschul said. “He saw the vision and we were very aligned on where we could be in the space, where our kind of brand fit is right now in the space, but also where we can take this brand.”
Altschul said he would like to get Wet’s door count to around 2,500 doors this year – adding an extra thousand accounts – with the East Coast being a goal as the brand has primarily built its presence around its Western backyard.
But there’s other opportunities for the company as well, including private label production and co-branded collaborations. Wet is making a line of canned waters for indoor pickleball court chain Picklr, launching at 300 locations nationwide this year.
Altschul also has his eye towards the powdered beverage space, with plans for a powder line likely to come to fruition later this year.
“We don’t just want to follow trends, we really want to develop our own,” he said. “We’re just making sure that we stay true to our core values, but also be able to venture off into what we feel are emerging subsets of the industry and the hydration space as a whole.”