Jetty, the new beverage brand from the founders of Poppi, launches with five flavors. Source: Jetty After revolutionizing the soft drink category with Poppi, founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are now taking aim at hydration with their new brand, Jetty. Starting Monday, Jetty drinks and ready-to-mix electrolyte packets will be on shelves at Whole Foods grocery stores and available online at Target and Amazon. The self-funded startup directly pits the Ellsworths against PepsiCo, which bought Poppi for $1.95 billion in 2025. Pepsi owns Gatorade, which dominates the sports drink category in the U.S. with about 60% market share, according to Numerator data. Poppi revolutionized the soft drink category with prebiotic fiber, low calorie and sugar levels, and fun marketing aimed at Generation Z and millennials. Jetty is looking to disrupt the hydration category through a similar strategy. To do so, it will face not only Gatorade but also a swarm of other startups looking to join the electrolyte-driven trend. For decades, Gatorade and other sports drinks have offered their products to athletes who need electrolytes and fluids after an intense workout, although many consumers drink them every day without even breaking a sweat. Jetty is aimed at people who need a boost of hydration, but not the same level of electrolytes or sugar as a traditional sports drink. “No one has really created a product just for daily hydration, literally daily hydration for normal people,” Allison Ellsworth, Jetty’s brand director, told CNBC. “As I woke up this morning, I didn’t run a marathon.” The GLP-1 Hydration Dilemma, Allison Ellsworth, Co-Founder of Poppi. She and her husband, Stephen, are launching a new drinks brand, Jetty. Jetty After the sale of Poppi to PepsiCo, Ellsworth remained an advisor to the brand, although she said she is no longer involved in day-to-day operations. After 10 years building Poppi, Ellsworth said, he finally had free time. According to Ellsworth, he went to the doctor for the first time in a decade. He started using a GLP-1 medication and lost 60 pounds. Thus Jetty was born. Ellsworth’s husband, Stephen, now CEO of the new brand, noticed that she wasn’t hydrating, even when she returned from the gym. GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro can make people less thirsty. But because staying hydrated can also help mitigate some of the side effects of medications, such as nausea and headaches, it may become more important. “I have a hard time physically getting fluid into my body,” Ellsworth said. Jetty is meant to solve that problem. Plain water is often less appealing to consumers, even dehydrated GLP-1 users, but tastier options with added benefits can be tempting. About 44% of GLP-1 users report consuming more functional beverages, according to EY-Parthenon’s third annual survey of more than 3,600 current or former GLP-1 users. Ellsworth also sees broader appeal for Jetty. “Our primary audience will be millennial moms and Generation Z,” she said. “Gen Z just doesn’t relate to these old-school brands, the legacy of Gatorades and Powerades. They’re just not cool.” Electrolyte Boost In general, consumers have become more interested in staying hydrated. Dollar sales of hydration and electrolyte products rose 20% to $2.6 billion for the 52 weeks ending Oct. 4, according to data from SPINS, which tracks new universal product codes, or UPCs. The category also has a strong repeat buyer rate of 62%. However, the Ellsworths aren’t the only ones noticing the potential of hydration. The number of new items in the category with annual sales of at least $10,000 has increased 41% over the past two years, according to SPINS. Big food and beverage companies have also been looking at hydration. Kraft Heinz introduced Capri Sun juice pouches and Kool-Aid packets with electrolytes this spring. In April, Pepsi unveiled an overhaul of the Gatorade brand, focused on making it more appealing to a broader group of consumers, with more potential occasions like a “fresh start in the morning” or an “afternoon stroll.” And Electrolit is an outperformer for its distributor Keurig Dr Pepper, with retail sales growing 40% in the company’s third quarter. All of that means more competition for shelf space and consumers’ “throat share,” an industry term for beverage market share. To increase Jetty’s visibility in the grocery store and maximize convenience for shoppers, Jetty will be available in both powder and bottle form. Single-use electrolyte blends are growing at a much faster pace than the ready-to-drink category, Ellsworth said, thanks to Unilever’s Liquid IV and smaller companies like LMNT. On Amazon alone, powders are a billion-dollar category, according to Ellsworth. Ready-to-drink, or RTD, sports drinks are a much larger market, but sales of the category are declining as consumers look for other hydration options. Unit sales of sports drinks have fallen 9.1% from 2022 to 2026, according to data from Numerator. And Coca-Cola has written down the value of BodyArmor by more than $1.7 billion after buying control of the brand for $5.6 billion in late 2021. That doesn’t worry Jetty’s founders. “My husband and I know how to do RTD,” Ellsworth said. Jetty will launch with five flavors, including watermelon, orange, mango, fruit punch, black raspberry and white cherry. They all contain 100 milligrams of sodium, 310 milligrams of potassium, and 100 milligrams of magnesium in a 15.2-ounce bottle or 15-gram package. In addition to electrolytes, Jetty products also contain vitamin B, 3 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of sugar. It does not use artificial sweeteners or colors, its founders say. For comparison, a 20-ounce bottle of traditional Gatorade Thirst Quencher has about 270 milligrams of sodium and 80 milligrams of potassium, plus 34 grams of sugar. The sports drink brand is also phasing out artificial colors and promoting lower sugar versions. “What’s really interesting about this product and this opportunity is that we can now capture all of those drinkers who stopped drinking, or that generation that didn’t even drink it in the first place,” Ellsworth said. Jetty vs. Gatorade Poppi’s new owner also knows Jetty and the market he’s trying to capture. “I don’t think so [Pepsi] “They understand it, but what they do understand is that the movement is changing, and they think that by simply eliminating dyes or using 90% less sugar, they are going to capture this audience,” Ellsworth said. “But that’s very big corporate thinking.” He added that he believes Pepsi has failed in advertising to Gen Z consumers across its portfolio, such as in its campaigns for Sprite competitor Starry. Perhaps as an extension of that, Poppi’s performance has been disappointing under PepsiCo ownership now estimates the fair value of potential performance-based payments to Poppi’s previous owners to be $12 million, Pepsi said in a regulatory filing in October. At the time of the deal, Pepsi promised an additional $300 million payment if Poppi hits certain targets by the third quarter of 2027. The Ellsworths declined to comment on the filing to CNBC. This time, with a successful brand under its belt, say Jetty’s founders. They have learned from past mistakes. Those lessons should help Jetty launch on a much larger scale than Poppi did. Three different claims attorneys have approved Jetty’s packaging, according to Ellsworth Poppi paid $8.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged false advertising over its “gut health” claims. For now, Jetty is completely self-funded at $2.5 million, though Ellsworth said the brand will likely raise money in 2027. This time, however, he said investors will likely look less like traditional venture capitalists. “I want to attract investors who add value,” Ellsworth said. Instead of a venture capitalist who is willing to invest $15 million, Jetty would prefer to consider investors who can only write a check for $1 million but have access to celebrities. “This way you will have access to talent at a cheaper level and people who invest in the brand.” And Jetty has learned some lessons from Gatorade, too. work on a lemon-lime version: the original Gatorade flavor. “Eventually we will,” Ellsworth said, “but at first it was very important to stick to the flavors we loved, so it would taste good.”
