Athletic Greens is now a unicorn. Its unicorn goal: Be this generation’s cool beverage

Back in the 1980s and ’90s, Gatorade used “Be Like Mike” and a ubiquitous presence on the sidelines of seemingly every athletic contest in existence to transcend being a sports drink while still retaining that halo of health. In the 2000s, Red Bull used a heavy mix of action sports, arts, and music content to break out of the skatepark and snowboarding arena and into nightclubs and late-night coding sessions.

Over the last decade-plus, the nutritional supplement beverage company Athletic Greens has been quietly amassing a crew of entrepreneurs, athletes, and influencers who swear by its AG1 greens powder as a liquid multivitamin/probiotic/prebiotic/functional greens blend/immune support complex, and more. Today, with the company’s announcement of $115 million in funding led by Alpha Wave Ventures that drives Athletic Greens’s valuation above $1 billion, it’s ready to put that money to work expanding its base beyond high achievers who relentlessly try new things to “literally everyone in the world who has an internet connection and who wants to have a happy, healthy life and can afford us,” as Athletic Greens founder and CEO Chris Ashenden puts it.

“If I look at the trends in play right now, we have a fundamental, generational shift of people wanting to have more ownership over their health, a desire to have control of that journey,” Ashenden says. “We see a world where people wake up, brush their teeth, have a coffee, and take AG1—that cultural phenomenal idea of this becoming something you do everyday. It’s in the early stage of acceleration. The new funding is to help continue to drive that.”

Founded in 2010 in New Zealand, Athletic Greens initially built a cult following among athletes and the wellness crowd for its one and only product, a powdered beverage that combines more than nine essential nutrition products into one. Over the past decade that one product has gone through 52 iterations, with work on the 53rd ongoing. Ashenden has largely bootstrapped the company to $150 million in revenue; it grew 250% from 2019 to 2020, and 360% from 2020 to 2021.

“The funding allows us to really lean into that growth and the value that is there, continue to drive innovation and value back to our customers, and we’ve had a lot of things cooking in the kitchen that we’ll now accelerate and take this brand global,” says Ashenden, who’s achieved all of this primarily through word of mouth.

Last year, the brand shifted its approach to attract more female customers, with the seemingly simple steps of changing the name to AG1 and adding more images of active women to its website and other materials, which led to women being 45% of new customers. In July, it announced its first outside funding round, led by SC.Holdings; individual celebrity investors include Hugh Jackman, Cindy Crawford, Tim Ferriss, Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton, and Peloton’s Robin Arzón. In late 2021, it brought on Kat Cole as president and COO, a position she recently held at Focus Brands, the parent company of Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, and Jamba.

Cole says this new funding will help the company expand its R&D investment and global operations, as well as explore strategic retail opportunities and do more significant brand marketing. “Our challenge is not only to do these things but also not to fuck up what’s been working so well so far,” she says. “It’s an unbelievably effective product that has a radically high degree of trust with customers. It’s not lost on me the responsibility to protect that, while doing more storytelling, talking about the brand, and expanding the geographies, products, and channels.”

The ambition is high, but Cole also sees the need for patience and pacing, likening the ideal approach to that of one of the company’s recent investors. “This is not a ‘let’s just hit the gas’ situation,” Cole says. “I’m looking for Lewis Hamilton levels of speed and grace. If our approach to building this company could be an athlete, it would be him. Grace. Purpose. Power. Speed. We have to hold all of those things at one time to be this generation’s cool beverage that is actually functional and healthy.”