From a British beverage startup to a Durham medical device firm, Triangle area investors and innovators were building up their cash coffers as 2021 came to an end.
Take a fund called Morgan Creek Private Opportunities LLC Series L- Lyre’s.
In the midst of the pandemic, Chapel Hill’s Mark Yusko, CEO of Morgan Creek Capital, met Mark Livings, the Australian born CEO of buzzy British beverage startup Lyre’s. The two hit it off – so much so that at the end of Livings’ U.S. road show, Yusko’s firm wound up investing millions in the company.
A securities filing that dropped last week offers details. Morgan Creek put forward a special purpose vehicle worth more than $8.1 million for the firm’s latest funder. The sum, accumulated from more than 50 investors, is just a fraction of Lyre’s haul. The company wrapped a round worth about $27 million in November, one that valued the firm at $360 million.
Yusko said the Lyre's – pronounced “liar’s” – fits into a new niche for Morgan Creek: consumer goods. And he sees more of these kinds of investments happening in the first half of 2022.
Lyre’s offers zero alcohol spirits that would look at home on a bar shelf. Yusko said what grabbed his interest was Livings’ “vision,” as well as how he navigated supply chain disruption.
“Zero alcohol spirits, it’s a chemistry issue,” Yusko said. “It’s using chemistry to replicate flavors and the experience of different spirits … getting the chemistry right and getting the supply chain right – it’s a big deal.”
Morgan Creek Capital's funding vehicle was one of multiple investment rounds to close the last week of December. Others included Durham Distillery, which closed on an already-started $4.5 million round Dec. 27, and 410 Medical, a medical device startup out of Durham dedicated to improving care for critically ill patients. It raised $3.1 million Dec. 29. And Durham’s Epsilon Holdings closed on nearly $11.5 million in equity Dec. 30.
