The recent funding was led by Altos Ventures, the company’s largest investor to date, alongside Blue Investment Group; HartBeat Ventures, Kevin Hart’s venture fund; Ryan Seacrest; Guy Fieri; and Ninja, among others.
Launched in 2015, PATH has grown its distribution footprint to over 50,000 retail doors and formed partnerships with other organizations including The Sacramento Kings, Orange Theory Fitness, 1 Hotels, Alo Yoga, State Farm, and Yellowstone National Park to help reduce their single-use plastic bottled water use.
“This partnership [with Altos Ventures] brings the beverage industry and Silicon Valley together to usher in a new era of bottled water. This funding will accelerate our mission to bring the plastic crisis to the forefront and create a scalable platform for sustainability,” said PATH co-Founder & CEO Shadi Bakour.
“At Altos, we strive to lead by example by integrating sustainability in our investment and business practices. We hope that our partnership with PATH will encourage other organizations to follow in our footsteps,” commented Ho Nam, managing director and co-founder of Altos Ventures.
The mounting issue of plastic waste
The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the world’s oceans with a huge contributor being single-use plastics. PATH’s ultimate goal and mission is to eliminate the 10 billion plastic bottles going into landfills and oceans by 2025 by reducing consumers’ reliance on single-use plastic with a more sustainable, reusable packaging alternative.