Lyre’s secures $16m investment to lead global non-alcoholic spirit growth

Lyre's Spirit Co

Lyre’s secures $16m investment to lead global non-alcoholic

spirit growth.
The world’s most awarded non-alcoholic spirits company, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit
Co. has announced the successful closure of seed round funding, securing a total of
$16 million (AUD) in growth capital, the most material investment on record to date
for the category.
This significant business injection accelerates Lyre’s vision of changing the way the
world drinks and provides ongoing investment for core product growth, category
innovation and new market expansion.
18 months since its launch, Lyre’s has moved into a global leadership position in
non-alcoholic spirits, pre-empting and responding to changing consumer demand
and drinking behaviour.
The non-alcoholic category is rapidly emerging with triple-digit growth experienced
globally in the last 12 months driven by health, lifestyle and responsibility factors
across all age groups.
Despite a challenging 2020, Lyre’s has focused on the direct-to-consumer segment
and delivered over 400% monthly recurring revenue growth since January,
exceeding all forecasts the company had previously set.
The fast-growing category is being matched by fast-paced innovation with Lyre’s
creating 13 products since launch and many more slated for the next six months.
Mark Livings, Lyre’s CEO and Co-founder said: “This growth positions the Lyre’s
brand for continued success and leadership with high quality non-alcoholic
alternatives in one of the fastest-growth consumer brand categories in the world”.
“Our business anticipates and matches the trends of the consumer and culture and
our current product innovation is being developed to match alcohol spirit flavours
and styles. Lyre’s was created to shake up the drinks category and put the choice
back into the consumer’s social occasion to drink freely. The recognition from the
multiple, respected, international award competitions shows we clearly have
something that is resonating,” says Livings.
“The next year demarcates our business evolution from a start-up to a true multinational
beverage company, with manufacturing in multiple, global locations,
compliance for new markets and continued recruitment firmly at the top of our task
list. We’ll need all aspects of our plan to come together, delivered by a great team of
people with the Lyre’s esprit de corps to grow our leadership position in the nonalcoholic
spirits category.”
The seed round was structured to be completed in three tranches over the course of
an initial twelve-month trading period, a necessary process to ensure the business
was sufficiently capitalised to support what Livings describes as ‘planned, lightningfast
growth with controlled capital consumption’.
Major participants in the seed round include VRD Investment, Doehler Ventures, DLF
Venture and Maropost Ventures with a number of European, American and
Australasian family offices and HNWI also participating.
Fellow Co-founder Carl Hartmann builds on this: “The investors we’ve brought into
this business see value well beyond the short to medium-term impacts of the
pandemic and will bring significantly more value beyond their participation from a
capital perspective. Good companies with strong fundamentals and a truly unique
market offering can always raise money, even in challenging times.”
An Australian-developed brand, Lyre’s is arguably the most widely distributed nonalcoholic
spirit in the world available in more than 30 markets, with increased
presence in both on and off-prem venues.
The brand is heading for a strong summer of non-alcohol spirits innovation with the
launch of a Ready-To-Drink range to expand the opportunity for people to enjoy a
Lyre’s with increased convenience.
“Lyre’s is a black swan emergence of an entirely new consumer products category,”
Livings adds. “I can’t wait to see what we can do in our next 12 months.”
/Public Release.