Iris Nova, a NYC-based consumer goods company focused on non-alcoholic beverage, raised $15M in seed funding.
Backers included:
– The Coca-Cola Company’s Venturing & Emerging Brands unit
– GGV,
– Greycroft,
– CASSIUS,
– Imaginary Ventures,
– Betaworks Ventures,
– Lakehouse Ventures,
– Nebari Ventures,
– Tim Armstrong,
– Gary Vaynerchuk,
– Chris Burch,
– Michael Rapino,
– Ron Burkle,
– Kate Hudson,
– Sophia Bush,
– Alex Rodriguez, and
– Scooter Braun.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its portfolio of brands and further tech capabilities through its SMS-based distribution platform. Additionally, Iris Nova will allocate a portion of funding to Iris Nova Ventures to invest in early stage beverage brands and offer value-added access to its cCommerce distribution platform.
Founded by Zak Normandin, Iris Nova is a parent company to innovative beverage brands that distribute via a direct-to-consumer conversational commerce (cCommerce) model, which interacts with customers exclusively via text message.
The first brand under the Iris Nova umbrella, DIRTY LEMON, launched in 2015 as a direct-to-consumer beverage brand selling exclusively by text message. The second brand property, The Drug Store, is a conceptual retail experience used to test new beverage concepts before they’re produced on a national scale. The first location, in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, opened in September 2018. Iris Nova plans to expand The Drug Store to three additional locations nationally throughout 2019.
The company is currently developing two additional non-alcoholic beverage concepts, launching in Q1 2019 and Q3 2019, marking four brands under the Iris Nova umbrella by the end of 2019. All new brands will employ the same SMS-based cCommerce platform utilized by DIRTY LEMON.
FinSMEs
21/12/2018