How it works
Once accepted onto the Distill Ventures portfolio, four main areas of support are offered.
1. Investment
Investment comes from Distill Venture's partner, Diageo. To date investments have ranged from £250k to over £10 million.
Each deal is tailored to the specific needs of the business and the stage and rate of growth. A business plan is jointly developed between the entrepreneur and Distill Ventures to establish an appropriate level of funding.
Diageo is a minority investor, enabling the founders of the business to stay firmly in control during key growth stages. However, over time and assuming the business does well, Diageo may wish to acquire the business. This call option is included in all deals, and is for a pre-agreed future point.
2. Expertise and Partnering
Following an investment into the business the Distill Ventures team will work with the founder to build a growth strategy and a plan to achieve it. A dedicated partner is allocated, someone who is an entrepreneur themselves, with knowledge of how to launch brands, long-term strategic planning and rapid scaling across multiple markets.
Entrepreneurs will also have access to a broad network of Distill Venture contacts and partners who have additional experience and skills to leverage, from brand building to liquid development to driving growth in North America.
More on expertise and partnering.
3. Partner networking
The team at Distill Ventures has a great deal of knowledge and expertise in the drinks start-up market. Combined with an external community of drinks experts and partnership with Diageo they present an unrivalled level of networking opportunities for founders to benefit from.
Diageo provides access to over 25,000 drinks professionals, offering support on technical, financial, product, legal, commercial and marketing experience.
Distill Venture's own network of external drinks specialists provide access to importers, distributors, bartenders, recruiters, PR agencies, designers and more.
4. Access to North American market
Redwood Brands has been created by Distill Ventures as a US based sales platform. Its aim is to help mitigate the inefficiencies and obstacles that brands often face when entering this market and striving to obtain top tier accounts.
Redwood Brands was established in recognition of the need for on-the-ground knowledge and expertise of the American market. Managing the relationship between brands and local distribution partners this extension of the sales team enables founders to concentrate on marketing and building brand awareness.
More on access to the North American market.
Westward American Single Malt Whiskey
Launched January 2012, Westward is an American malt whiskey made from 100% Pacific Northwest two-row malted barley, fermented with Scottish and American
Stauning Peated Single Malt
Unusually, Stauning distillery have their own maltings to produce the peated malted barley from which this Danish whisky is double distilled using traditional
Stauning Young Danish Rye
Unusually, Stauning malt a combination of rye and a small amount of malted barley in-house. This is fermented and twice distilled in traditional copper
Seedlip
Launched in September 2015 and named after the basket traditionally used to sow seeds, Seedlip is a blend of six non-alcoholic botanical distillates made
Belsazar Vermouth Dry
Belsazar Vermouths are based on wines from Germany's South Baden region and are fortified with Schladerer fruit brandy, produced by a family-run company
Belsazar Vermouth White
Belsazar Vermouths are based on wines from Germany's South Baden region and are fortified with Schladerer fruit brandy, produced by a family-run company
Belsazar Vermouth Red
Belsazar Vermouths are based on wines from Germany's South Baden region and are fortified with Schladerer fruit brandy, produced by a family-run company
Belsazar Vermouth Rose
Belsazar Vermouth Rosé is flavoured with infusions of pink grapefruit, orange blossom, pomeranze, raspberries and redcurrants.
