--- title: Coconut water quenching investors’ thirst for gains - The Hustle description: Vita Coco, once limited to health food stores, aims for the mainstream. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1519833855-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-vita_coco_20230606004550.webp --- # Coconut water quenching investors’ thirst for gains ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: June 07, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 “Vita Coco, like many great adventures, began in a bar.” ![Vita Coco stock](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1519833855-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-vita_coco_20230606004550.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1519833855-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-vita_coco_20230606004550.webp) The line — a ray of light in a dense 218-page 2021 [IPO filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1482981/000119312521296568/d197386ds1a.htm) — comes from the Vita Coco Co. co-founder (“coco-founder”?) Mike Kirban, who explains how the idea for Vita Coco was planted. - Kirban and friend Ira Liran met two Brazilian women at a bar in 2003. - In brief, Liran married one of them and moved to Brazil. Kirban visited Liran, Liran had Kirban drink a coconut, and Kirban liked it; the duo admired coconut water’s popularity in Brazil, said something like, “Let’s do this in America,” and, for brevity’s sake, *boom*. #### **Cracking open revenue streams** The $1.5B Vita Coco brand now holds 50%+ of the US coconut water market, [according](https://www.fooddive.com/news/from-hot-yoga-to-coffee-and-bars-inside-vita-cocos-push-to-make-its-cocon/650319/) to *Food Dive*, with net sales up 13% last year to $427.8m, and its stock up 90%+ since that 2021 IPO. The company now hopes to follow Ocean Spray’s playbook, leaning in to its potential as a cocktail mixer to expand its presence in bars, restaurants, clubs, and — through a canned cocktail partnership with Captain Morgan — liquor aisles. Vita Coco is already shelling out strong growth stats: - The company says it’s already in 11% of US homes. - Relative Google search interest in coconut water is nearing all-time highs. - The brand has nearly as many TikTok followers as Coca-Cola — with even more likes. **BTW:** Growing up dyslexic, Kirban’s teachers once told him he wouldn’t get a job if he couldn’t read. As he wrote in Vita Coco’s IPO filing, “If only my teachers could see me now!” Topics: [Food](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/food) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Holy smokes, there may actually be a limit to Texans’ love of barbecue](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1244337807-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-Texas-BBQ_20230928210924.webp) ### Holy smokes, there may actually be a limit to Texans’ love of barbecue - ![Think your industry is weird? 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