Irish founded start-up The Naked Collective has secured in excess of £5.3million in its latest round of fundraising, well exceeding the original target of £4.2million.
The Naked Collective has already launched drinks Mude and So.Beer in more than 4,000 stockists, following a €6million (£5.14m) investment last year. Stockists include Spar in Ireland, Sobeys retail group in Canada, Dimar and Iperconad in Italy WH Smith Stores in the UK.
The latest finance will support expansion in the US market. The Naked Collective aims to make the range available in over 5,000 stores by Spring 2022, after recently appointing CA Fortune as partner.
The Naked Collective’s Co-Founder Catherina Butler said: “We are already enjoying impressive growth across all our key markets; in the UK we’ve just doubled our distribution on Mude across the WH Smith travel retail estate in the last month; our products can be purchased in 1/3 of the Irish retail market; and we are on target to make the brands available in over 5000 US stores by Spring next year. This is testament to the growing appetited for carbon neutral, healthy, all natural drinks like ours.”
Co-CEO and co-founder of The Naked Collective Niall Phelan will permanently relocate to the US to facilitate the company’s North America ambitions. Commenting on the recent string of successes, Niall said: “We knew from the outset that there was a market for a brand like ours, but to have that substantiated by investors and industry leaders is another great milestone.
“Having only launched just over a year ago, and in the face of several challenges (Covid and Brexit), we are immensely proud of how The Naked Collective has fared thus far. The rapid growth of the brand and support from investors is yet further proof of the increased consumer demand for serious health and wellness products.”
Investment success comes after the company’s Mude brand was announced as the official partner for Rita Ora at the Eiffel Tower, a concert due to be broadcast globally on 30 September in conjunction with Paris Fashion Week.
The Naked Collective’s expansion is not the only one to be announced today. Read more on BrewDog’s venture into the Japanese market here.