Lyre’s secures £9m investment to lead non-alcoholic spirit growth

Non-alcoholic spirits brand, Lyre’s, has announced the closure of a seed funding round in which it secured £9m in growth capital, making it the most material investment on record to date for the sector.

The investment will be used to accelerate core product growth, category innovation and new market expansion, ultimately aimed at changing consumers’ attitudes towards drinking. 

Lyre has responded to the challenges of 2020 by focusing on the direct-to-consumer sector, delivering over 400% monthly recurring revenue growth since January this year. 

Since launching 18 months ago, the company has created 13 products and anticipates more to come in the next six months, including the brand’s entry into the ready-to-drink market.  

“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,” said Mark Livings, Lyre’s CEO and co-founder. 

“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.”

He continued: “The next year demarcates our business evolution from a start-up to a true multi-national 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 non-alcoholic spirits category.”

The seed round was completed in three tranches over the course of an initial twelve-month trading period, to ensure the business was sufficiently capitalised to support what Livings described as ‘planned, lightning-fast growth with controlled capital consumption’.

Key investors in the seed round included 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 commented: “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.”

“Lyre’s is a black swan emergence of an entirely new consumer products category,” Livings said. “I can’t wait to see what we can do in our next 12 months.”