Non-Alc Spirit Brand Earns $360 Million Valuation, Landing Backing From SpaceX Investor – Forbes

While many of Lyres peers focus on replicating bar well staples: gins, rums, vodkas, etc, Lyres ... [+] goes beyond, crafting no-ABV options of a full portfolio of spirits, from sweet vermouths to Campari swaps to absinthes.

As demand for no-ABV drink options continues to skyrocket, one non-alcoholic spirits producer has hit a major milestone. Lyres has just wrapped a major funding round, valuing the UK-based company at 270 million pounds ($360 million USD). This is a jump from a valuation of 100 million pounds ($134 million USD) earlier this year.

The funding round was led by D Squared Capital and Morgan Creek Capital Management, an early investor in Drizly, AliBaba, and SpaceX

Founded in 2019, Lyres quickly gained a following by producing out-of-the-box spirits, like absinthes, rums, Campari-alternatives, and more, all sans alcohol. In two and a half years of trading, the brand had expanded to more than 60 countries.

The pace of growth were seeing is exceptional. We sold our first bottle in 2019 and today were selling one at least every 30 seconds, says Mark Livings, the brands CEO and founder. On our current trajectory, Lyres is set to become the fastest independent beverage brand to reach Unicorn status.

With this valuation, Lyres now sits as the most valuable no- and low-alcohol spirits brand in the world. The business is on course to be annualizing 50 million ($67 million in USD) in revenues by December this year.

We saw early on the potential of the brand and its products to capture market share in this fast-growing consumer category, describes Mark Yusko, CEO and Founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management. With a footprint now established in 60 countries, we are excited to see the impact of increased investment in sales and marketing facilitated by this capital injection.

The new investment of 20 million pounds will finance marketing expenses and fund the hiring of new employees, creating more than 50 new jobs in sales and marketing, production, logistics, finance and e-commerce.

While many of Lyres peers focus on replicating bar well staples: gins, rums, vodkas, and the like, Lyres reconsiders the full back bar, crafting no-ABV options of a full portfolio of spirits, from sweet vermouths to Campari riffs to alcohol-free absinthes. Currently, the portfolio spans 14 different products, including gins, bourbon-style bottles, triple sec, white rum, amaretto and coffee liqueurs.

The brand recently launched Classico, an alcohol-free Prosecco, to complement spirits range, and introduced a series of no-alc RTDs: Lyres American Malt and Cola and Lyres Dark n Spicy.Many of these innovations helped Lyres succeed in the Middle Eastern market, one of the worlds closely regulated markets for beverage alcohol.

Millennials and older Gen Zs are drinking less alcohol than any generation before them, but the mindful drinking movement transcends generations and cultural borders. Were not only growing our business were expanding the whole category, entering territories like the Middle East and the Far East virtually uncontested, said Livings.

Lyres seemed to step into the NA space at the right moment. In the last year, global off-premise sales have skyrocketed, hitting $3.1 billion across low-alcoholic and non-alcoholic categories. This is a jump from the categorys $291 million in off-premise sales the year prior.

The market is still small less than 5% of household penetration but non-alcs are outpacing the growth of low-alcs, according to NielsenIQs SVP of Account Development Kim Cox. NA sales totaled $331 million (up +33.2%) in the last year, while low-alcohol sales rose 8.1% to $2.77 billion. Brands saw a 315% increase in low- and no-alc beverage dollar sales.

By category, NA beer and cider grew 31.7%, wine increased 39.4% while zero-ABV spirits saw sales grow 113.4% over the last year.

The no/low alcohol beverage market is one of the fastest-growing markets in F&B and is showing similar characteristics to plant-based milks, meats, and other mindful consumer categories, describes Daniel Grossman, Managing Director of D Squared Capital. Lyres leading product, brand, and range of award-winning SKUs have proven that they are the industry leader and we are excited to be backing the best in class company.

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Non-Alc Spirit Brand Earns $360 Million Valuation, Landing Backing From SpaceX Investor - Forbes