Photo: Bibeyjj / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The founders of Poppi are launching a new beverage startup on Monday, taking aim at the sports drink category dominated by Gatorade, owned by the same company that paid $1.95 billion for their soda brand last year.
Allison and Stephen Ellsworth’s new brand, Jetty, arrives Monday, November 9, with bottled drinks and ready-to-mix electrolyte packets at Whole Foods stores and online at Target and Amazon. The venture is self-funded with $2.5 million, and the founders expect to raise outside capital in 2027.
Competing with the buyer
PepsiCo bought Poppi, the prebiotic soda the Ellsworths built over a decade, for $1.95 billion in 2025. Jetty, which the couple owns and funds independently, now competes with Pepsi’s Gatorade, which holds about 60 percent of the U.S. sports drink market, according to Numerator data.
Jetty is pitched at everyday hydration rather than post-workout recovery. It launches with five flavors, watermelon, orange mango, fruit punch, black raspberry and white cherry, each containing 6 grams of sugar and 3 grams of fiber per 15.2-ounce bottle or 15-gram packet, along with 100 milligrams of sodium, 310 milligrams of potassium and 100 milligrams of magnesium. A 20-ounce bottle of traditional Gatorade Thirst Quencher carries about 34 grams of sugar by comparison.
A crowded aisle
The Ellsworths are entering a category drawing heavy interest. Dollar sales of hydration and electrolyte products climbed 20 percent to $2.6 billion in the 52 weeks ended October 4, according to SPINS data, and the number of new items in the category has risen 41 percent over two years. Kraft Heinz added electrolytes to Capri Sun and Kool-Aid this spring, and Pepsi unveiled a Gatorade overhaul in April aimed at broader, everyday use.
Allison Ellsworth, Jetty’s chief brand officer, said the idea grew from her own experience using a GLP-1 medication, which can dampen thirst, and from watching consumers drift away from legacy sports drinks. “Our core audience is going to be millennial moms and Gen Z,” she said. Her husband, Stephen, is the new brand’s CEO.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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