The current funding was led by Altos Ventures, the corporate’s largest investor to this point, alongside Blue Funding Group; HartBeat Ventures, Kevin Hart’s enterprise capital fund; Ryan Seacrest; Man Fieri; and Ninja, amongst others.
Launched in 2015, PATH has expanded its distribution footprint to greater than 50,000 retail doorways and has fashioned partnerships with different organizations together with The Sacramento Kings, Orange Idea Health, 1 Lodges, Alo Yoga, State Farm and Yellowstone Nationwide Park to assist scale back their single use. use of plastic bottled water.
“This partnership [with Altos Ventures] brings collectively the beverage business and Silicon Valley to usher in a brand new period of bottled water. This funding will speed up our mission to carry the plastic disaster to the forefront and create a scalable platform for sustainability,” mentioned Shadi Bakour, co-founder and CEO of PATH.
“At Altos, we try to steer by instance by embedding sustainability into our investments and enterprise practices. We hope our partnership with PATH will encourage different organizations to comply with in our footsteps,”commented Ho Nam, Managing Director and Co-Founding father of Altos Ventures.
The rising downside of plastic waste
The World Financial Discussion board predicts that by 2050 there might be extra plastic on the planet’s oceans, with an enormous contributor being single-use plastics. PATH’s final objective and mission is to remove the ten billion plastic bottles that find yourself in landfills and oceans by 2025 by lowering client reliance on single-use plastic by an alternate extra sturdy and reusable packaging.
Collectively, Individuals purchase about 50 billion single-use plastic water bottles a 12 months. Utilizing a PATH water bottle as an alternative of a single-use plastic water bottle can save a median of 156 plastic bottles per 12 months, in keeping with the corporate.
As a recyclable materials, aluminum’s recycling charges are practically twice that of plastic, in keeping with PATH. Moreover, the method of recycling, transporting and distributing aluminum has a considerably smaller footprint in comparison with different liquid packaging options comparable to plastic and glass, the corporate claims.
“Aluminum is a way more precious product than plastic, so corporations have extra incentive to recycle and reuse this recycled materials sooner or later. Aluminum is infinitely recyclable, whereas plastic is commonly recycled , leading to extra waste,the corporate mentioned.
PATH versus the competitors
Light-weight and reasonably priced, PATH bottled water undergoes a 7-step reverse osmosis course of and is fortified with electrolytes. In line with the corporate, the water comes from a “dependable supply” based mostly in Montebello, Los Angeles.
Along with its unique bottled nonetheless water, the model presents PATH Glowing, a gently carbonated drink, and PATH Alkaline, which incorporates “specialty electrolytes” with a closing pH of 9.5+.
In contrast to different aluminum containers, PATH bottles are designed to be refilled and reused (the partitions are thicker and extra sturdy with a large mouth opening for simpler consuming and cooler water).
However not like dearer insulated water bottles (Hydro-Flask, Yeti, Nalgene, and so forth.), PATH water bottles should be hand-washed and might’t go within the dishwasher, the corporate mentioned. .
Scaling up manufacturing and distribution
The current funding might be used to extend the manufacturing of PATH water bottles. The corporate just lately expanded manufacturing on the East Coast with new manufacturing traces in North Carolina to satisfy rising demand nationwide.
The funding may even be used to considerably develop the corporate’s distribution over the subsequent 12-18 months to off-chain and impartial retailers, each nationally in america and globally. PATH entered main retailers together with CVS, 7/11, Walmart and Costco Enterprise Facilities.
Different main model retailers included Complete Meals Market, Sprouts, Ceremony Assist, Circle Ok and Wegmans.
In an effort to teach extra customers about PATH’s mission and the broader problem of plastic waste, the corporate will develop its model ambassador program by encouraging extra customers to make use of and refill a PATH water bottle. .
“The Sequence A funding may even permit PATH to attain its objective of being greater than only a water bottle model, however an organization that has an end-to-end answer for the sustainability disaster around the globe. “,the corporate mentioned.
