Germany-based HOLY raises €10.5M, aims to become Europe’s leading healthy soft drink brand

Berlin-based HOLY, a direct-to-consumer brand that offers a healthier alternative to regular soft drinks, announced on Thursday that it has secured €10.5M in a Series A round of funding to scale its offering across Europe.

The new round brings HOLY’s total raised capital to €12.3M. 

The current funding round has been described by investors as one of the most competitive consumer rounds this year despite the current slump in DTC investment.

Investors in this round

The round was led by global venture capital firm Left Lane Capital. Existing investors FoodLabs and Simon Capital (formerly known as Bitburger Ventures) joined the round.

London-based consumer fund V3 Ventures (part of international consumer investment company Verlinvest), entrepreneurs and industry experts such asJust Spices co-founder Bela Seebach, YFood founders Benjamin Kremer and Noel Bollmann, and the venture arm of Hamburg-based media company OMR also participated in the round.

Jason Fiedler, Managing Partner at Left Lane Capital, says, “In the US, we have seen the power of mission-driven brands like Liquid Death and ‘better for you’ products like Celsius winning market share from incumbents. We identified similar characteristics in the HOLY brand and product that we believe has tremendous mass-market potential and little competition in Europe.”

Growth across Europe

HOLY says that the funds will enable the company to advance its ambition of becoming Europe’s leading healthier soft drink brand. This involves launching new products, expanding into new territories like the UK, and entering retail markets.

Mathias Horsch, founder and co-CEO of HOLY, says, “HOLY is currently a team of 25. Now we’re looking for new talent to fuel our product, geographic, and channel expansion as we accelerate our growth across Europe.”

HOLY: Everything you need to know 

Founded in 2020 by Frederick Jost, Philipp Nass and Mathias Horsch, HOLY offers healthier and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional soft drinks with products like HOLY Energy and HOLY Iced Tea. 

These options have garnered a customer base of over 200,000 across Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland, much in line with the company’s philosophy of “better for you, better for the planet”.

The company has already sold more than 10 million drinks since its inception. Jost says, “We love soft drinks but incumbents are outdated, shipping sugary drinks in plastic bottles worldwide. We want to do it better and solve the trade-off between great taste and good conscience.”

HOLY’s powdered soft drinks are environmentally friendly, saving over 90 per cent of packaging waste and reducing carbon emissions.

Nass says, “With low sugar, low calories, functional ingredients like vitamins, nootropics, antioxidants and fibre, as well as natural flavours and colours, our drinks really appeal to the next generation of consumers.”