Lucky Saint sees bumper start to Dry January after securing £10m in funding

Lucky Saint has smashed the record for the largest ever funding round raised by an alcohol-free beer brand in Europe after securing £10 million from investors.

Luke Boase, founder and CEO of Lucky Saint, said the latest investment will ensure “further success for the company in the UK and help us build a globally recognised alcohol-free brand”.

The +£10 million Series A funding round was led by consumer and technology growth investor, Beringea, and the fund of innocent smoothie’s founders, JamJar Investments.

Other new and existing investors in the round include Warburtons chairman Jonathan Warburton, and adam&eveDDB co-founders James Murphy and David Golding. They joined Karmarama’s founder Ben Bilboul, VP of Meta Northern Europe Steve Hatch, Wahaca CEO and co-founder Mark Selby, and Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood.

“We all know JamJar’s track record in supporting and driving great consumer brands, and with Innocent as their story, we know we’ve got an exceptional team behind us,” Boase said of the brand’s new backer.

The funding will also enable a significant expansion of the Lucky Saint team, with several hires already made.

Lucky Saint is forecasting the biggest Dry January to date this year, predicting a rise in its sales of over 100% and an increase in Dry Jan participation of 25% to over 10 million people.

Boase commented: “We feel we’ve just scratched the surface of this opportunity. This investment will kickstart our launch into European markets and put more Lucky Saint in pubs up and down the UK. And with 1 in 3 pub visits now alcohol-free, we are unbelievably excited that our own pub and brand HQ is launching in central London where it all began 4 years ago. It’ll be a chance to showcase the Great British pub and our amazing industry.”

Adam Balon, founder of JamJar, said he was “delighted” to back the alcohol-free brand after first working together in 2021. He described the company’s journey as “part of a massive cultural shift with consumers as our relationship with alcohol undergoing big and irreversible change”, remarking that “there is big momentum behind this whole movement, as alcohol-free options increasingly become the first choice in pubs and hospitality”.