Drinks raises $15 million in Series B funding to ship wine directly to consumers

Los Angeles-based tech startup Drinks (Drinks Holdings, Inc) has raised $15 million in Series B funding to scale its platform and direct-to-consumer businesses. The round was led by Beverly Pacific with participation from Shea Ventures and others, brings Drink’s total funding to $25 million, the company said in a statement. The latest round was led by Beverly Pacific, with participation from Shea Ventures. Other participating investors included founder of Svedka Vodka Guillaume Cuvelier, former Sequential Brands Group CEO Yehuda Shmidman, Stable Road Capital and existing investors Kayne NewRoad Ventures and Drinks CEO Zac Brandenberg.

This round of financing brings total funding to approximately $25 million, the company said in a statement. Drinks will use the new funds to scale its unique ship-to-home platform that enables online and brick-and-mortar retailers to market wine directly to consumers in up to 41 states.

Founded in 2013 by veteran entrepreneur Zac Brandenberg and his colleagues, Drinks operates the leading digital wine platform and the nation’s only Ship-To-Home solution that allows both digital and brick-and-mortar retailers to market high quality and affordable premium wine for delivery around the United States. Leveraging big data and patented technology, Drinks maximizes consumer demand by generating customized store shelves and wine packs to match prospective customers with the right wines. Direct to consumer properties include Wine Insiders and Martha Stewart Wine Co.

Drinks  is disrupting the way wine is sold by leveraging its industry-leading reach and marketplace efficiencies to bring consumers the highest quality wine at the lowest prices, direct to their door. Drinks operates the leading consumer marketplace and platform for high quality, affordable premium wine. The company’s proprietary ecommerce platform provides optimized Direct Response acquisition, multiple storefronts, and personalized experiences.

“We are excited to announce this additional financing and welcome these strategic investors to our team,” says Zac Brandenberg, Co-founder and CEO of Drinks. “This round of financing is a validation of Drinks’ leading marketplaces, best-in-class technology and data science, and groundbreaking ship-to-home platform. As the technology leader in the wine industry, we will continue to disrupt the way wine is sold by leveraging our digital reach and marketplace efficiencies to bring consumers the highest quality wine at the lowest prices, direct to their door.”

Drinks offers the nation’s only plug-and-play platform for digital merchants and brick-and-mortar retailers alike to rapidly start marketing award-winning wine portfolios to their customers across the USA. Drinks provides an end-to-end solution, from curating a customized selection of wines specific to each customer, to state-level compliance, to delivery to a home, office, or one of 10,000 convenient local pickup locations.

“Drinks’ mission of ‘changing the way wine is sold’ immediately drew us to their digital platform. In so many categories, we have seen consumers demand an effortless shopping experience with convenient delivery—and we believe wine should be no different,” says John Morrissey, managing director of Shea Ventures. “With its innovative personalization technology and direct access to prestigious wineries that enable consumers to easily and affordably purchase premium wine, Drinks is uniquely poised to set the stage for the future of wine sales in the United States.”