Juneshine Closes Seed Round of Funding and Acquires Ballast Point’s Scripps Ranch
Increased capital and larger production facility mark the beginning of rapid expansion for the hard kombucha brand.
San Diego, CA (February 12, 2019) – JuneShine, the hard kombucha brand that launched in June 2018, announces the simultaneous close of its seed round of financing and the acquisition of all brewing assets at Ballast Point’s Scripps Ranch facility.
JuneShine’s investor group is composed of expert operators in the alcohol and non-alcohol beverage, consumer goods, and talent management spaces, along with world class creatives and athletes.
JuneShine investors include Red Light Management, Chris Hollod, Trail Post Ventures, founders of Thrive Market, Peter Rahal and Jared Smith of RXBAR, Nick Heldfond (early investor in KeVita kombucha), GC Capital, Cthulhu Ventures, as well as leading athletes Albee Layer, Sage Kotsenburg, Nora Vasconcellos, and Chris and Kimmy Benchetler.
“We thought of our seed financing as a way not to just raise money from traditional financial platforms, but rather to build a group of experienced professionals that believe in our vision and will join us as partners as we work towards our goal of offering a more sustainable, transparent product at scale,” commented Forrest Dein, JuneShine Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer.
The proceeds of the financing will be used for product and geographical expansion, primarily in the forms of building a larger team and expanding manufacturing capacity.
“The Scripps Ranch facility is a historical building, a key contributor in legitimizing the craft beer industry, which also enabled Ballast Point to produce enough product to become one of the biggest private alcohol companies in the U.S.,” commented Greg Serrao, JuneShine Co-Founder and CEO. “As JuneShine seeks to increase production in great volume, and also become a best-in-class leader for our product category, it became obvious that this was a timely opportunity.”
JuneShine anticipates opening Scripps Ranch for production and to the public in summer of 2019, paralleled by an expansion both within and outside of California.
“In many ways, we are just getting started. The first thing we will do with additional product, before going anywhere, is double down on our home market – we owe to our original San Diego customers only the best,” said Serrao.
JuneShine’s North Park location will keep its doors open to production and its tasting room even after the opening of Scripps Ranch.
ABOUT JUNESHINE
JuneShine launched in June of 2018, with the mission to quench the thirst of the healthy and active, while positively impacting the environment. JuneShine manufactures and sells organic hard (6.0% ABV) kombucha. While a variety of flavors are on draft in their tasting room, the company currently distributes four flavors in both cans and draft (Blood Orange Mint, Honey Ginger Lemon, Midnight Painkiller, and Cucumber Mojito). JuneShine is currently distributed throughout San Diego and select accounts in Orange County and Los Angeles, and sells product in the tasting room of their North Park (San Diego) based brewery. JuneShine plans to expand production and distribution in the coming months. For more information, visit JuneShine.co and @juneshineco.
