Poppi founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are launching Jetty, a self-funded hydration brand backed by $2.5 million, to compete with PepsiCo's Gatorade in a category that posted $2.6 billion in dollar sales over the past year.
The founders of Poppi are stepping into the electrolyte category with a new brand called Jetty, launching Monday with bottled drinks and ready-to-mix powder packets aimed directly at the market dominated by PepsiCo's Gatorade.
Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, who built Poppi into a prebiotic soda brand before PepsiCo acquired it for $1.95 billion in 2025, are self-funding Jetty with $2.5 million. Allison Ellsworth, serving as the brand's chief brand officer, said the company will likely seek outside capital in 2027.
Jetty products will be available starting Monday at Whole Foods grocery stores and online through Target and Amazon, the company said.
The launch puts the Ellsworths in direct competition with PepsiCo, their former acquirer. Gatorade holds approximately 60% of the U.S. sports drink market, according to data from Numerator, though the broader ready-to-drink sports beverage category has been contracting — unit sales have fallen 9.1% from 2022 to 2026, per Numerator.
The brand is positioned not as a sports drink but as an everyday hydration product. "No one has really created a product for just everyday hydration — literally everyday hydration for normal people," Allison Ellsworth told CNBC. "Like I woke up this morning, I didn't run a marathon."
The concept grew partly from Ellsworth's personal experience with GLP-1 medications. After Poppi's sale, she said she started using a GLP-1 drug and lost 60 pounds, but found herself struggling to consume enough fluids — a known side effect of medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, which can suppress thirst. Stephen Ellsworth, now Jetty's chief executive, observed the problem firsthand. "I physically struggle getting liquid into my body," Allison Ellsworth said.
The timing aligns with a documented behavioral shift. 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.
The hydration and electrolyte category more broadly has seen dollar sales climb 20% to $2.6 billion over the 52 weeks ended October 4, according to SPINS, which tracks new universal product codes. The category carries a repeat buyer rate of 62%, and the number of new items with annual sales of at least $10,000 has increased 41% over the last two years, per the same data.
Jetty will launch with five flavors — watermelon, orange mango, fruit punch, black raspberry, and white cherry. Each 15.2-ounce bottle or 15-gram packet contains 100 milligrams of sodium, 310 milligrams of potassium, 100 milligrams of magnesium, B vitamins, 3 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of sugar, with no artificial sweeteners or dyes. By comparison, a 20-ounce bottle of traditional Gatorade Thirst Quencher contains approximately 270 milligrams of sodium, 80 milligrams of potassium, and 34 grams of sugar.
The Ellsworths are entering a category with intensifying competition. Kraft Heinz launched electrolyte-infused Capri Sun pouches and Kool-Aid packets earlier this year. In April, PepsiCo unveiled a Gatorade brand overhaul designed to appeal to a wider range of occasions beyond athletic recovery. Electrolit, distributed by Keurig Dr Pepper, posted 40% retail sales growth in that company's third quarter.
Meanwhile, the ready-to-drink segment's difficulties are visible elsewhere. Coca-Cola has written down the value of BodyArmor by more than $1.7 billion after acquiring control of the brand for $5.6 billion in late 2021.
Ellsworth said Jetty's core audience is "millennial moms and Gen Z," echoing the generational positioning that helped Poppi gain traction in a soda category long defined by legacy brands. "Gen Z just isn't relating to these old school brands, the legacy of the Gatorades and the Powerades," she said. "They're just not cool."
Whether Jetty can replicate Poppi's trajectory — from self-funded startup to a nearly $2 billion acquisition — will depend on how quickly it can secure shelf space and repeat buyers in a category that is simultaneously expanding and crowding.
TechEchelon Staff bylines are produced collectively by the newsroom for short, breaking, and wire-style coverage. Longer-form reporting is published under the responsible reporter's name.
More from the Staff →CoreWeave's 2032 bond yield has climbed above 16% and its credit default swaps spiked past 1,289 basis points, as Democratic election wins raise new questions about the regulatory and financial future of AI data center expansion.
A broad sell-off in AI and semiconductor stocks swept through Asian markets Friday after the Nasdaq Composite entered correction territory, as investors weighed whether post-midterm regulatory risks could curtail U.S. data center construction and undermine AI chip demand.
More than 12,000 healthcare executives, investors, clinicians, and founders head to Las Vegas this month for HLTH USA 2026. Organizers have billed the show as the arrival of intelligent healthcare, and the companies exhibiting and speaking offer an early look at what that means in practice.
Written for readers who already know the basics — markets, AI, and the policy decisions that shape both.