Beverage dispensing company Bevi receives $35m in funding

‘Smart’ beverage dispensing company Bevi has raised $35 million in a Series C funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Boston-based Bevi produces a range of touch-screen operated beverage dispensers which allow users to select still or sparkling water in a variety of flavours.

Bevi said that the funding will be used to accelerate product development across the company’s hardware, software and beverage portfolio, expand the company’s sales footprint within the US and Canada and build brand awareness with consumers.

In particular, Bevi is working to develop machines that include temperature control, wider control over carbonation, and allow the infusion of functional ingredients such as vitamins.

The company says that customisation will play an important role in the beverage industry in the future, as more consumers are demanding personalised and tailored beverages.

Bevi CEO Sean Grundy said: “I remember starting out five years ago and we were trying to raise a $1 million seed round and our lawyer at the time asking me why not try to raise $2 million.

“I commented then I wouldn’t even know what to do with $2 million. Now it’s funny — we have $35 million and I feel like I know exactly what to do with it.

“Even though we’re a technology company, long-term it’s really important that we connect with our end users as well as all of our customers.

“Since we are a mission-driven company, we started Bevi to eliminate disposable bottles and cans, we’d love to really galvanise our user base and listen more to what our users are saying and work with them to turn Bevi into a meaningful brand that people know and feel affiliated with.

“In a way, Bevi could become almost an anti-brand, if you think of a brand as mass producing a very standard product designed to be exactly the same everywhere.

“We have the opportunity to do the opposite, to let people create whatever drink is the best fit for their taste profile, for their health goals, for how they’re feeling at a particular time of day.”