Personalized wine subscription box company Bright Cellars has raised $11.2 million in Series B funding, the Milwaukee-based company said Wednesday, bringing its total amount raised to $26 million, according to Bright Cellars.
Chicago's Cleveland Avenue LLC, a venture capital firm specializing in the food and beverage industry, led the round. Cleveland Avenue was founded by Don Thompson, who previously was president and CEO of McDonald’s Corp.
Bright Cellars, which was founded in 2014, delivers monthly wine boxes to subscribers based on their taste preferences. Bright Cellars' data engineers and in-house sommeliers work together to curate and rate wines, fueling an algorithm that matches subscribers with wines based on an introductory taste quiz and feedback they share about the wines they try.
Using the data it has collected from users, Bright Cellars has begun developing its own portfolio of wines and has launched more than 600 to date, according to a press release.
"The top rated wine on our platform tastes and looks unique–it has no equivalent in the market," Bright Cellars CEO and co-founder Richard Yau said in a statement. "Every year since we’ve launched Bright Cellars, ratings on the platform have increased — leveraging the data we get from direct feedback is fueling a better wine experience for our members.”
Bright Cellars will use the new funding to scale operations, expand its wine portfolio, advance its data platform and make its wine education materials more personalized, according to Wednesday's announcement.
With headquarters in the Ward4 co-working space at 313 N. Plankinton Ave. in Milwaukee, Bright Cellars has around 100 total employees, many of whom are based in Wisconsin. The company said it expects to continue to hire locally.
Bright Cellars announced the close of its $8.5 million Series A round in March 2019, which was led by Revolution Ventures and included Milwaukee's CSA Partners. In May 2018, it announced it had raised $2.8 million from investors including Northwestern Mutual, CSA Partners and Cleveland Avenue.
Some of Bright Cellars' previous investors — including Milwaukee's Northwestern Mutual and Revolution Ventures, which has offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — also participated in the company's most recent fundraising round.
Originally launched in Boston by Yau and chief technology officer Joe Laurendi, Bright Cellars relocated to Wisconsin after participating in the gener8tor equity accelerator program in Madison in 2015.
