Liquid Death, a Los Angeles-based startup that sells canned water, recently raised $9 million in Series A funding — bringing the startup’s total funding to $11.25 million. The company’s CEO & co-founder Mike Cessario, told Business Insider that Liquid Death made an effort to find strategic investors to help contribute to the company’s growth.
The funding round was led by Mike and Kass Lazerow’s Velvet Sea Ventures. The Lazerows are known for selling their company Buddy Media to Salesforce.com for $745 million. Other participants included Jake Strom and Blake Mycoskie of Toms, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, CEO of Thrive Market Nick Green, GirlBoss founder Sophia Amoruso, and others.
The startup pitches itself as an environmentally-friendly alternative to bottled water and uses a punk aesthetic and irreverent marketing tactics to make its product more shareable, and thus, more sellable. Examples of these marketing tactics include the brand’s tagline, “Murder Your Thirst.”
Rather than using single-use plastics for its packaging, Liquid Death puts its water in tallboy cans made out of aluminum, which has 20 times the amount of recycled materials per container than plastic. The company also emphasizes that its cans are “infinitely recyclable.”
To add on to its eco-conscious image, Liquid Death donates a portion of each can sold to Thirst Project and 5 Gyres, nonprofits which help work against plastic pollution and help bring clean drinking water to those in need.
The main challenge the company faces is, of course, convincing consumers to purchase a 12-pack of canned sparkling or regular water for $18.99 when alternatives exist for a fraction of the price.
However, Liquid Death isn’t targeting the cost-conscious consumer. Rather, the company sells its water as sustainable, healthy, and exciting. Cessario told TechCrunch he aims to create a brand that is “just as exciting, if not more exciting, than energy drinks, soda, alcohol, and candy.”
This strategy has clearly been effective when used on investors, and according to the company’s claims that at least 20 customers have tattooed the Liquid Death logo on themselves, it’s working on consumers as well.
Cessario also said that the majority of Liquid Death sales have come from either Amazon or the company’s website. However, the company has plans to put its product into more brick-and-mortar retailers — beginning with Whole Foods, which will start selling Liquid Death this month.
Article By: Connor Beam
