Lemon Perfect founder and CEO Yanni Hufnagel didn’t comprehend it but, however his hydrating lemon water model was about to go viral in 2020, all due to an sudden look of the Dragon Fruit Mango bottle within the door of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s limo.
“She had posted a photograph with it in her limo, and rapidly my cellphone blew up,” Hufnagel stated. “We got here to study that she was an genuine fan of the model. A 12 months later, one among our traders was in her home and noticed her stash within the fridge and helped us construct the bridge along with her. It’s past my wildest desires to have somebody of her affect being a fan of the model.”
The corporate introduced Thursday that Knowles-Carter is a backer in its $31 million Sequence A alongside Beechwood Capital, Goat Rodeo Capital, Melitas Ventures, NNS Capital and Trousdale Ventures.
“I don’t usually get pleasure from drinks with out added sugar, however Lemon Good is scrumptious,” stated Knowles-Carter in an announcement. “It was a simple resolution to spend money on one thing that not solely tastes nice and is wholesome, but in addition, and most significantly, permits selecting a more healthy life-style to be inexpensive and accessible to everybody.”
Hufnagel began the Atlanta-based firm in 2017 after a profession as a university basketball coach for College of Nevada, Reno. After an sudden encounter with a retailer proprietor who dreamed of being a coach, the shop proprietor ended up sending Hufnagel a draft of a guide he was writing in regards to the Keto weight-reduction plan, which included recipes for lemon water.
After seeing his basketball gamers ingesting Bai within the locker room, it obtained Hufnagel occupied with taking lemon water and giving it the identical basis as Bai and to go after the multibillion-dollar enhanced water category that he thought was ripe for disruption. This market is anticipated to develop almost 9% yearly over the following 5 years.
In the present day, Lemon Good is in direct competitors with drinks like Bai, Vitamin Water and Trace. It is available in flavors, together with Beyoncé’s favourite Dragon Fruit Mango, Simply Lemon, Blueberry Acai and Peach Raspberry. The drinks have 5 energy, include potassium and vitamin C, however zero sugar and no synthetic flavors or sweeteners.
“Nothing with our taste and well being profile is in the marketplace at the moment,” Hufnagel added. “And, our worth level is at the place a shopper wherever and anytime can turn out to be a buyer. It is vitally uncommon that you may have a complete addressable market like we do.”
The Sequence A introduced at the moment is a mix of a $16.5 million preliminary spherical and a $14 million extension, Hufnagel stated. The brand new funding offers Lemon Good whole funding to this point of $42.2 million and a complete valuation to over $100 million.
The corporate beforehand raised funding two years in the past, however the driver for this new financing was easy: development. Hufnagel needs to scale the model to greater than 40,000 factors of distribution by the tip of 2022, which would require a considerable discipline gross sales staff. Presently it’s sitting at 25,000 factors of distribution, together with its web site, Amazon and retailers throughout the nation like Publix, Fred Meyer and Mariano’s. Lemon Good can be poised to launch in Costco in the summertime.
In 2021, Lemon Good quadrupled its income to $21 million, and Hufnagel estimates the corporate will do $60 million in retail gross sales in 2022, up from $25 million final 12 months. He additionally expects to greater than double the enterprise when it comes to income this 12 months. Together with that development has come a lift in headcount, which stands at 70, up from 38 workers a 12 months in the past.
“Beverage is an costly sport, and entry to capital is the one option to drive a fast-scaling model ahead,” Hufnagel stated. “We wish to be a disruptive participant in a big class and wish to put gas on the hearth. We felt like we had been in a position to drive nice execution, however nonetheless have room to develop and wish to construct an enormous margin story for tomorrow.”
