water bottle brand circle raising 70 million in a series
C round led by S. C. Holdings,
the company reaching unicorn status in the process with a
billion dollar valuation and circle developing a reusable water bottle
and flavor cartridges which allow consumers to flavor their water
, sip by sip using a dial to control the
flavor intensity. It does aim to take the beverage
industry into the future with a product that centers on
personalization, health and sustainability. And joining me now
is Garrett Wagner co founder and Ceo of Circle Garrett
, thanks so much for coming on the show.
Pretty cool water bottles. I see behind you there
. So give me some more details about these bottles
and the cartridges, The unique cartridges for consumers to
totally thanks for having me. Um Yeah, so
what we're up to here at circle is really reimagining
how beverages are delivered to customers. Um When you
think of the notion of a single use plastic bottle
beverage, it's, you know inefficient to ship.
It's inefficient for customers. It's not customizable, it's
one size fits all. Um So what we're really
doing is is challenging the status quo when it comes
to delivering beverages to customers. Um With our circle
flavor cartridge, which is our patented device here that
is inserted into the top of a reusable bottle.
Um You're able to dial up or dial down the
amount of flavor sip by sip and allows you to
really deliver on customer expectations in a way that is
, you know, pretty unique in the beverage space
. Um We've been really fortunate to see explosive growth
um customers. The reception has been amazing across all
, all forms of media, especially Tiktok. Um
, but at the end of the day, really
, what we're about, we're about customization, delivering
something that's, you know, personalize able to the
end user. We're about choice offering a bunch of
different varieties of beverages for, for those customers.
Um, and we're about convenience and sustainability. You
know, when you think about this cartridge, it's
, it's the equivalent of six bottles of, you
know, any flavored beverage. It's, you know
, 84% less plastic. It's 96% more efficient to
ship. It's 100% customizable. So customers, you
know, they tell us they love it. A
lot of the growth that we're seeing is, is
really, really staggering. So let me ask you
this. This product went viral on Tiktok. Right
. What stood out on Tiktok, I think you
sell it at walmart too. I see a top
seller, um, at walmart. How have you
been able to use social media to drive sales.
Yeah. I think the real unlock for us on
, on Tiktok was, you know, the authenticity
of the folks trying the product and um, people
time and time again, we get the bottle and
they see a reaction video and be like, this
thing can't be this good. It can't work this
great. Um, so they would set up their
Tiktok film a video. Um, and time and
time again. Just the reaction was super authentic.
You see the big eyes and people say, wow
, oh my gosh. Um you know, the
reaction is, is pretty, pretty fun to see
. Um, and what we saw is people just
kind of kept challenging. Like no, this thing
can't be this great. And you know, time
and time again. We just saw, you know
, video after video go viral. Um, and
I think it's, it's a product that was designed
for, you know, the new generation that's on
Tiktok. The folks that are looking for something that
challenges the status quo. It's new. It's authentic
. Roots is a D to C company. It's
, it's something that's important to us to be able
to connect with the customer day in and day out
. So what are the flavors that people can get
and what's the price point to keep these filters flowing
and the drinks nice and tasty. So we've got
a variety of flavors, um, 70 plus blends
across 11 different kind of functional beverage lines. You
can think of anything from, you know, a
vitamin enhanced water to an electrolyte sports drink. We've
got tasty iced coffees, iced teas, energy drinks
big for us is, you know, table stakes
is no artificial flavors, no calories, no sugar
, no colors. Um, it's important to us
to deliver something for, you know, those end
users that's, you know, healthy and then of
course giving folks the option to, you know,
really refined and kind of dialing what health is for
them because that's, you know what we're all about
. We're about giving people access to water as their
favorite beverage. So some of the favorite flavors,
you know, people love the Black chair, the
fruit punch, we've got some really tasty teas,
but you know, we've got an option for everybody
. I think that's the beauty of the product that
we have, you know, a huge offering of
flavors kind of the high level. But then when
you get into the cartridge itself, if you like
something that's a really light flavor, you can actually
just dial down the cartridge and deliver on that expectation
for the customer. I think that um, that's
something that's really resonated with the customer base. My
last question very quickly is um what's the reusability of
the cartridges? Garret, can people send them back
to you, Can you reuse the cartridge or is
it just something that you end up recycling when it's
all said and done? So depending on how flavor
do you want your beverage, It lasts anywhere between
six and 12 bottle phillips, which is, you
know, equivalent to six or 12 pack of sports
drink or vitamin enhanced water. The cartridge is recyclable
. We've got tips on our website at drink circle
dot com backslash recycling and 3 60 recyclable program is
definitely on our minds and as we continue to move
towards scale, um, it's gonna be a focus
for us. All right Garrett Wagner co founder and
Ceo of Circle. I want to try some of
these. I hope you can send them okay,
We can take care of that black cherry and ice
coffee. Those would be my two suggestions for meals
. You got it. Thanks for the time.
Let's appreciate it. Thanks. Garrett. Garrett is
the co founder and Ceo of Circle.