Hard kombucha-maker JuneShine announced today the completion of a $24 million Series B funding round, which will help fund several initiatives, including the launch of its first non-hard kombucha product.
The funding round, led by seed round investors Amberstone and Litani Ventures, consisted of existing JuneShine investors, as well Allen Gannett, entrepreneur and author of “The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time.”
“JuneShine is one of those category-defining brands that doesn’t come around very often,” Nick Mindel, partner at Amberstone, said in a press release. “The brand is driven by a team that has brought transparency and better-for-you options into the alcohol segment, and they are just scratching the surface on what they can accomplish.”
The money raised will be used for several growth initiatives for the San Diego-based company, including expanding JuneShine’s presence as a “better-for-you alcohol brand, not product,” Greg Serrao, JuneShine co-founder, told Brewbound.
“I think we’re gonna really prove to ourselves, and to better serve our consumers, that we are a true better-for-you alcohol platform and brand that resonates across multiple products to the millennial demographic,” Serrao said.
In-line with this mission, JuneShine will launch its first product beyond hard kombucha in Q1 of 2022. While Serrao would not share what the product is yet, he said it will not be a hard seltzer.
“We’ve wanted to do that from the beginning,” he said of offering a product other than hard kombucha. “That’s not a novel idea. It’s just the first year we’re gonna go outside of hard kombucha.”
Serrao noted that the company has developed enough of a trusted relationship with its retailers, distributors and consumers, as well as the internal infrastructure, to now expand its portfolio of offerings.
The $24 million will also be used to increase JuneShine’s marketing budget, which will include funding for social media investments, samplings at events and retailers, and the hiring of additional field marketing staff.
“Solid marketing expenses for us are not just for building JuneShine, but for building new categories,” Serrao said. “When I look at what are the categories that are growing year-over-year …you have hard teas, you have hard kombuchas, you have RTDs, you have non-alcs. So, how do we win in those, but then how do we also help build the overall category?
“This new category is going to continue to grow and grow for years to come,” he continued. “If we think millennials are picky about what’s in their product, like the next generation’s even worse.”
In addition to more “in-the-field” staff, the company will add additional sales representatives to its team, to support new distribution areas, as well as existing markets, such as Colorado.
Additionally, JuneShine will be expanding its physical presence, with the addition of tasting rooms outside of San Diego, including its first brick-and-mortar facility outside of California. Serrao said the location will likely be in the Northeast, and will open by early Q2 of 2022.
In April, JuneShine opened a new flagship tasting room in Santa Monica. The 2,000 sq. ft. location has “blown past all [JuneShine’s] expectations,” co-founder Forrest Dein told Brewbound in June.
The company will also complete the final expansion of its San Diego facility, to increase its maximum production capacity to 120,000 barrels annually. To help with the expansion, JuneShine will open a warehouse near its facility to serve as a distribution center.
“We’re just becoming more and more vertically integrated,” Serrao said.
JuneShine will also expand its celebrity ambassador partnerships in 2022, and will launch more flavors in its Passion Project Series, in which investors oversee every aspect of the research and development of a product. Most recently, it launched Prickly Pear Margarita, in partnership with comedian Whitney Cummings.
JuneShine tripled its revenue from 2019 to 2020, and is on track to double revenue again in 2021, according to the release.