Poppi founders launch Jetty to take on Gatorade

After disrupting the soda category with Poppi, founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are now turning their attention to 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 new self-financed venture directly pits the Ellsworths against PepsiCowhich purchased Poppi for $1.95 billion in 2025. Pepsi owns Gatorade, which dominates the U.S. sports drink category with about 60% market share, according to Numerator data.

Poppi shook up the soda category with prebiotic fiber, low calories and sugar, and fun marketing aimed at Gen Z and millennials. Jetty is looking to disrupt the hydration category with a similar strategy. To do so, it will take on not only Gatorade, but also a swarm of other upstarts looking to get in on the electrolyte-fueled trend.

For decades, Gatorade and other sports drinks have pitched their products to athletes who need electrolytes and fluids after intense workouts, although many consumers drink them every day without even breaking a sweat. Jetty is aimed at people who need a hydration boost, but not the same level of electrolytes or sugar as a traditional sports drink.

“No one has really created a product that’s just for everyday hydration — literally everyday hydration for normal people,” Allison Ellsworth, Jetty brand director, told CNBC. “As I woke up this morning, I didn’t run a marathon.”

After Poppi’s sale to PepsiCo, Ellsworth remained an advisor to the brand, although she said she was no longer involved in day-to-day operations.

After 10 years of building Poppi, Ellsworth said, she finally had some free time. As Ellsworth tells it, she went to the doctor for the first time in a decade. She started taking a GLP-1 medication and lost 60 pounds.

This is how Jetty was born.

Ellsworth’s husband, Stephen, now CEO of the new brand, noticed that she wasn’t hydrating, even when she came home from the gym.

GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro can reduce thirst. But because staying hydrated can also help alleviate some medication side effects, such as nausea and headaches, it may become more important.

“I physically struggle to get fluid into my body,” Ellsworth said.

Jetty is supposed to solve this problem.

Plain, old 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 core audience will be millennial and Gen Z moms,” she said. “Gen Z just doesn’t have anything to do with those old school brands, the legacy of Gatorades and Powerades. They’re just not cool.”

Overall, consumers are increasingly interested in staying hydrated.

Dollar sales of hydration and electrolyte products climbed 20% to $2.6 billion in the 52 weeks ended Oct. 4, based on 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 hydration potential. 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.

Major food and beverage companies are also moving into hydration.

Kraft-Heinz launched Capri Sun juice packets and Kool-Aid packets containing electrolytes this spring. In April, Pepsi unveiled a redesign of the Gatorade brand, aimed at making it more appealing to more consumers, with more potential occasions like a “morning fresh start” or an “afternoon walk.” And Electrolit is one of the most efficient for its distributor Keurig Dr Pepperwith retail sales growing 40% in the company’s third quarter.

All this means increased competition for shelf space and consumers’ “share of throat,” 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 powder and bottles.

Single-serve electrolyte mixes are growing much faster than the ready-to-drink category, Ellsworth said, thanks to Unilever‘s Liquid IV and smaller newcomers like LMNT. On Amazon alone, powders are a billion-dollar category, according to Ellsworth.

Ready-to-drink, or ready-to-drink, sports drinks represent a much larger market, but sales in this category are declining as consumers turn to other hydration options. Unit sales of sports drinks fell 9.1% between 2022 and 2026, according to Numerator data. And Coca-Cola wrote down BodyArmor’s value by more than $1.7 billion after buying control of the brand for $5.6 billion in late 2021.

This does not worry the founders of Jetty.

“My husband and I know how to RTD,” Ellsworth said.

Jetty will launch with five flavors, including watermelon, orange mango, fruit punch, black raspberry and white cherry. All contain 100 milligrams of sodium, 310 milligrams of potassium, and 100 milligrams of magnesium in a 15.2-ounce bottle or 15-gram packet.

In addition to electrolytes, Jetty products also contain B vitamins, 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 contains 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 exciting about this product and this opportunity is that we can now capture all of these inactive drinkers — or this generation that never even drank it in the first place,” Ellsworth said.

Poppi’s new owner also knows Jetty and the market she is trying to conquer.

“I don’t think (Pepsi) understands, but what they understand is that the movement is changing, and they think that just by cutting out the dyes or consuming 90 percent less sugar, they’re going to capture this audience,” Ellsworth said. “But it’s very big business thinking.”

She added that she believes Pepsi has missed the mark when it comes to advertising to Gen Z consumers across its portfolio, such as in its campaigns for competitor Sprite Starry.

Perhaps as an extension of this, Poppi’s performance has been disappointing under PepsiCo ownership.

The food and beverage giant now estimates the fair value of potential performance-based payments made to Poppi’s former owners at $12 million, Pepsi said in a regulatory filing in October. At the time of the transaction, Pepsi promised an additional $300 million payment if Poppi met certain targets by the third quarter of 2027. The Ellsworths declined to comment on the filing to CNBC.

This time around, with a successful brand under their belt, Jetty’s founders say they’ve learned from past mistakes. These lessons should help Jetty as its launch is on a much larger scale than Poppi.

According to Ellsworth, three different lawyers signed off on Jetty’s packaging. Poppi paid $8.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging false advertising regarding its “gut health” claims.

For now, Jetty is entirely self-funded with $2.5 million, although Ellsworth said the brand will likely raise money in 2027. This time, however, she said investors will likely look less like traditional venture capitalists.

“I want to attract investors who provide value,” Ellsworth said. Instead of a venture capitalist willing to invest $15 million, Jetty prefers to consider investors who can only write a check for $1 million but have access to celebrities. “So you have access to talent at a lower cost and people invested in the brand.”

And Jetty learned some lessons from Gatorade, too. For example, the brand is already working on a lemon-lime version – the original Gatorade flavor.

“We will eventually,” Ellsworth said. “But it was really important in the beginning to stick to flavors that we like, so that it tastes good.”