This Viral TikTok Water Is Now Worth $1 Billion
When Garrett Waggoner saw visits to his company’s website surge about 400% in early 2021, he thought it was a mistake. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was another example of TikTok’s power. The firm’s Cirkul water bottles had gone viral on the social media platform with thousands of videos eventually racking up more than one billion views.
The company surfed that “TikTok Made Me Buy It” wave to the shelves of Walmart Inc. Since debuting in US stores in mid-April, Cirkul has sold 1.5 million units and is one of the top-performing items in the home department, the world’s largest retailer told shareholders this month.
Cirkul is sold in home sections because it’s an appliance of sorts. Users fill the Cirkul-branded plastic bottle with water, insert a flavor cartridge and set an intensity dial to customize options ranging from iced coffee to strawberry lime. Starter kits with a bottle and two cartridges sell for about $20.
The success at Walmart helped the startup recently raise $70 million in a funding round that boosted its valuation more than 500% to $1 billion. (The company declined to provide sales or profit figures.)
Bloomberg spoke with the 31-year-old Waggoner, Cirkul’s chief executive officer and a founder, and Philip McKeating, its chief operating officer, about the brand’s origin story, going viral and sustainability.
How did Cirkul get started?
Waggoner: In a locker room at Dartmouth College, where we played football. I was pouring powder into a water bottle, and it made a mess. That was the proverbial lightbulb moment, and we came up with the concept of a flavor cartridge. Cirkul was founded in 2018 with fellow Dartmouth graduate Andy Gay. Trying to break through in beverages must have been daunting, given all the
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