The story of Lunar Hard Seltzer is one of triumph. In 2019, longtime friends Kevin Wong and Sean Ro began a homebrewing e...
Opportunity
A huge opportunity created
by two major macro trends
1.
America's growing diversity has
led to a thirst for Asian flavors and stories
- 40%+ of the US now identifies as an ethnic minority
- 25M+ Asian Americans are the #1 highest earning and fastest growing ethnic group
- Whole Foods identified Asian flavors as their top food trend...twice!
- $500M+ raised for Asian consumer goods startups this year alone
A wave of Asian culture, flavors
and stories is sweeping the world
2.
Ready-to-drink beverages are a booming $10B category as consumers graduate from “hard seltzer 1.0”
- Consumers are moving on from brands like White Claw in search of better products and mission driven brands with real ingredients
Yet < 10% of brewery owners are BIPOC, leading to a lack of products speaking to an increasingly diverse America
Concept
Meet Lunar: an award-winning, Asian-inspired craft hard seltzer
From homebrewing in our tiny studio apartments...to the beverage that tastemakers are repping today!
In 2019, co-founders Kevin and Sean were grabbing a late night Korean fried chicken dinner when they wondered: why were there only Bud Lights and White Claws, instead of drinks as high quality and authentic as the food?
They set out to create a delicious drink to properly represent Asian flavors and be accessible to everyone.
1.5 years of homebrewing, 500+ recipes, and various trips to Asia later to source the best fruits, they finally struck gold with Lunar.
Product
A beverage unlike others Lunar is worthy of iconic,
acclaimed restaurants
Featured at 7+ Michelin, Eater, and James Beard Foundation-awarded restaurants, unlike any other seltzer
—
Meet our Heritage Line:
Nostalgic flavors with iconic
chefs that sell out within hours
We started Lunar by featuring our fav childhood fruits. But we've gone a step further by taking the flavors nostalgic and emblematic of our heritage and reimagining them into seltzers.
With our annual Heritage Line, we partner with iconic chefs to brew flavors like Pineapple Cake (world's first seltzer with MSG as an ingredient) and Tamarind & Rice Paddy Herb, which sell out within hours. People have flown across the US just to snag some!!
Traction
Explosive growth as we launch in retail chains
We started in 2021 with the two of us co-founders knocking on doors and talking to buyers. In a short 18 months, we've made incredible progress in our first market, NYC, by landing some of the top retail chains, from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Total Wine, Fairway, H-Mart and more, and are already approved for launch in Costco and BJ's. But we're just getting started, by using NYC as our springboard to expand our distribution to more states!
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Over 200+ restaurant and
bar accounts in NYC alone
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Unlike other seltzers that aren't able to effectively sell into these channels due to cheap branding and lower quality, Lunar is uniquely able to succeed in stores and at your favorite restaurants, bars, clubs, and venues.
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Loved by top media outlets
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Customers
A brand beloved by America’s melting pot
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A seltzer people actually enjoy drinking
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A highly engaged community
built with tastemakers
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Business model
Already achieving industry-leading sales velocity...
...while pioneering the premium seltzer category.
- 300%+ higher revenue per store than beer/seltzer avg
- Top 3 sell-through rate across current chain footprint vs. peers
- 81%+ accounts retained
Market
RTDs are a rapidly growing $10B+ category
- Ready-to-drink beverages have been the #1 fastest growing drinks category since 2018
- 16% CAGR over the next 5 years, taking market share from beer, wine and liquor
- Forecasted to capture 22% share of US alcohol by 2025
- Consumers are moving on from "hard seltzer 1.0" brands like Truly in search of higher quality, mission driven brands; Drizly has seen an increase in average order $ over the past two years
Competition
High-quality, full-
flavor, and on-trend
Vision and strategy
Pioneering the cultural
renaissance in alcohol
To disrupt the alcohol industry by sharing the flavors from our culture and heritage, we'll:
- Launch new flavors and formats (and supporters get to participate in R&D)
- Drop fire collabs with the most iconic, culturally forward brands
- Build taprooms around community and culture
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Scaling distribution and expand
to new markets
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With our best in class sales data in New York, we're leveraging that advantage to launch new retailers and new markets as we look to 2023 and beyond.
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Our roadmap
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Over the next few years we'll be strategically expanding Lunar across the US. Then, we'll head to Asia where we've already had significant import and customer interest.
Impact
1%+ donated to AAPI causes and non-profits
As non-profit volunteers ourselves, supporting the communities near and dear to our hearts is core to our mission at Lunar. As part of Pledge 1%, every month we donate at least 1% of proceeds and our time to non-profit organizations, causes and individuals, in our effort to help support the AAPI community.
Past non-profits we've supported include Welcome to Chinatown, Immigrant History Initiative, Apex for Youth, and many more. This year, we helped build a small business accelerator to help mom-and-pop Chinatown restaurants modernize their operations and renovate their businesses <3
Funding
Raising to expand to new markets and meet customer demand
Lunar has raised $1.1M to date from friends, family and notable strategic angels and executives in the beverage and alcohol industry.
We're raising funds to support our expansion as customers and retailers continue asking for Lunar across existing and new markets.
With your support, we'll be able to increase our manufacturing and distribution capabilities and build a team to bring our product to even more people's fridges and share more of our culture to the world.
Use of Funds |
Founders
Founded by two startup vets and kids of immigrants turned homebrewers
who chose to make the change they wished
to see in the world
Kevin and Sean were eating Korean fried chicken when they wondered: why were there only Bud Lights and White Claws, instead of drinks as high quality and authentic as the food?
They set out to create a delicious drink that properly represented Asian flavors. 1.5 years of homebrewing, 500+ recipes and various trips to Asia later, they struck gold.
Kevin Wong (Taiwanese-American)
Co-Founder
Director, Corporate Strategy @ Yext
Investment Banking @ J.P. Morgan
University of Virginia
Sean Ro (Korean-American)
Co-Founder
Product Management @ Prescriptive Data
Product Design @ Conductor
Carnegie Mellon + University of Virginia