Update: Madison startup The Kombucha Shop scored a deal on Shark Tank Sunday night, landing an investment from both Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, and Shark Tank regular Barbara Corcoran. The two sharks agreed to invest $200,000 for 10 percent equity in the company, plus a $150,000 line of credit.
Original story below
The Kombucha Shop, a Madison-based home-brew supply company, announced that it is slated to appear on ABC’s Shark Tank this Sunday.
According to the announcement, which the company shared Monday on Instagram, founder and CEO Kate Field flew to Los Angeles this past summer to pitch the company to a panel of investors.
The online shop sells supplies and instructions for home-brewing kombucha, a cold tea drink fermented with yeast. Its flagship product, the Kombucha Brewing Kit, has over 1,400 reviews on Amazon at a 4.7/5 rating.
Field founded the company in Madison in March of 2014. Field found a passion for kombucha while working at Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C and saw a market opportunity for quality home-brew kombucha kits, according to the company’s website. The company says it's “one of the largest and most reliable home brew kombucha companies” with tens of thousands of kits shipped.
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A post shared by The Kombucha Shop (@thekombuchashop) on Nov 12, 2018 at 11:06am PST
The Kombucha Shop COO Alana McKeever said the startup ramped up production in anticipation that the episode will boost sales---as it typically does for most companies that appear on Shark Tank. The company is expanding work hours, bringing in temps and recruiting friends and family members to help out, McKeever said.
“It’s been quite the party around here,” McKeever said, “with plenty of kombucha, speed-packing contests and Taylor Swift to keep us going.”
The Kombucha Company does much of its production and fulfillment in Wisconsin. All of the company’s packaging is manufactured by Wisconsin Packaging Corp. in Fort Atkinson and its glass bottles are printed by WB Bottle, a fourth-generation bottling company in Milwaukee.
Shark Tank, the ABC business-themed reality show, features entrepreneurs from a variety of industries pitching their companies and concepts to a panel of potential investors. An average of 4.1 million viewers tuned in to Shark Tank last season.
The episode is set to air Sunday at 8 p.m. central time.
