Olipop (2018-2025): the prebiotic soda brand that built a $400 million-revenue business in five years

Where the prebiotic-soda category came from

Ben Goodwin had previously co-founded Obi, a probiotic soda brand, which had limited commercial success and was sold for approximately $100,000 in proceeds. Goodwin used those proceeds and additional capital to launch Olipop in 2018 with David Lester. The conceptual insight that distinguished Olipop from Obi was prebiotic fiber rather than probiotic bacteria — prebiotic fiber is more shelf-stable, has clearer functional claims, and has fewer regulatory questions for a beverage in retail distribution.

The competitive context was a US carbonated-soft-drinks category in long-run decline. Traditional sugary soda had been losing share for 15 years as consumers shifted toward water, sparkling water, energy drinks, and tea. The diet-soda category had limitations (artificial sweetener taste, public-health concerns). Olipop’s positioning — familiar soda flavors with lower sugar and added functional benefit — was a category-creation play in the gap between traditional soda and the functional-beverage category. Poppi (founded 2020) became the principal competitor in the same category, but the two brands have largely grown together rather than competing for the same customers.

The commercial trajectory

Olipop’s early years (2018-2019) were focused on product development, brand identity, and initial DTC and natural-channel distribution. The 2020-2021 period was the acceleration: the company scaled from sub-million revenue in 2019 to over $20 million in 2021 as it built out broader retail distribution. By 2022 the company was at approximately $66 million in revenue. By 2023 it had crossed $100 million. By 2024 it reached approximately $400 million, and the company stated it was profitable for the year.

The retail-distribution build-out drove the volume growth. Olipop achieved placement in Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Sprouts, Wegmans, and other major grocery chains. The product’s mainstream-shelf placement (the soda aisle rather than the natural-foods section) was a deliberate strategic choice that exposed the product to traditional-soda consumers rather than treating it as a niche functional product. The brand’s social and influencer marketing — particularly with TikTok creators and lifestyle influencers — built consumer awareness ahead of the retail-distribution expansion.

How the funding history points to the exit

Olipop’s funding history followed a venture-capital path through 2022-2024, with rounds led by Marcy Venture Partners, Verlinvest, and others. The February 2025 Series C at $1.85 billion was led by J.P. Morgan Private Capital’s Growth Equity Partners with participation from existing investors. The CEO publicly described the round as the company’s “final anticipated round of equity financing,” signaling that an IPO or strategic acquisition is the next milestone.

The strategic-acquirer set for Olipop is the major beverage conglomerates: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, Anheuser-Busch InBev. Any of these companies would benefit from owning a category-leading functional-soda brand to round out their portfolios. Coca-Cola in particular has a track record of acquiring fast-growing beverage brands (Honest Tea, Vitaminwater, Topo Chico) at this scale. The alternative path is an IPO, which would depend on the macroeconomic environment and on Olipop’s ability to demonstrate sustained profitability and category-leadership at scale.

How RGM thinks about category-creation in beverage

When clients in CPG or beverage ask about category-creation strategy, Olipop is the structural example we point to. Three structural lessons. First, the category position has to be inside an existing high-volume mainstream category, not in an adjacent niche. Olipop is shelved with soda, not in the functional-beverage section, and is priced as a soda alternative rather than as a functional supplement. The category-mainstreaming positioning is what allowed the volume scale to happen. Second, the product has to deliver against the category expectation while differentiating — Olipop tastes like soda first and has functional benefits second, not the other way around. Functional beverages that prioritize the function over the taste typically stall at smaller revenue scale because they cannot convert mainstream-soda drinkers. Third, the brand and packaging must be retail-ready from the start; Olipop’s visual identity, can format, and shelf-positioning were designed for traditional-grocery distribution rather than for natural-channel or DTC-only.

The pattern is generalizable to other functional-beverage and functional-food categories where the existing mainstream category is large and declining. The structural conditions (large existing category, demographic shift away from traditional product, scientifically credible functional benefit) are also visible in adjacent categories like ready-to-drink coffee, energy drinks (now contested between caffeine-heavy and adaptogen-functional), and packaged snacks. We tell clients in these categories to study Olipop’s category-mainstreaming approach carefully — the strategic moves that worked there transfer with adaptation.

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