The LvlUp CPG 100: Early-Stage Brands We're Watching, Fall 2026
Industry Updates
October 16, 2026
By the LvlUp Ventures team · October 16, 2026
100 consumer brands, 50 in Food & Beverage and 50 in Beauty & Personal Care, that our team thinks are about to break out.
Every week our team talks to founders building the next generation of consumer brands. Some are a few months past launch. Some just landed their first national retailer. A few are on their way to becoming household names. This list is our read on who is moving fastest right now, and why.
About LvlUp Ventures and the CPG Fund
LvlUp Ventures is an early-stage venture firm with investment centers in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris and Dubai, and more than 1,000 startups backed globally. PitchBook ranks us as the most active VC in Consumer Goods & Tech, and our portfolio includes 100+ CPG brands.
For early-stage founders, it starts with Labs CPG, our self-paced program for Food & Beverage, Skincare & Beauty and Consumer Electronics brands. Founders get masterclasses, office hours with the LvlUp team, and discounts on tools for marketing, accounting, banking and shipping. It’s a clear path from early traction to LvlUp investment.
How we built the list
We looked at early-stage brands across the US, Canada, the UK, Europe and Australia and weighed three things:
Traction we could verify: new retail doors, funding rounds and revenue milestones reported in 2025 and 2026.
Originality: a product, ingredient or format that no one else owns.
Momentum: how much noise the brand is making with buyers, investors and shoppers right now.
Each category opens with our Top 5 in depth, followed by No. 6 through No. 50, grouped by category. Most of these brands have no tie to LvlUp. The handful that do carry a 📌 pin, so you can weigh our view accordingly.
Food & Beverage: The Top 5
The common thread: each of these brands went from launch to national shelves, or a serious raise, faster than its category usually allows.
No. 1 Laurel's Coffee
Founder: Isabel Washington · Category: Ready-to-drink coffee · HQ: Los Angeles · Website:drinklaurels.com
Isabel Washington left McKinsey in February 2024 and had canned lattes on shelves by August. Her angle is the milk: organic, regenerative A2 dairy from Alexandre Family Farms, in flavors like Dirty Chai and Matcha. Two years in, Laurel's is in Whole Foods, Erewhon and every Wegmans, and rolled into 1,800 Target stores in August 2026, with Costco roadshows next.
The brand has sold more than 500,000 cans and reports being the No. 2 non-alcoholic beverage at Whole Foods in the Northeast.
Why it's No. 1: The fastest retail ramp on this list, built on a real point of difference in a sea of oat-milk lattes.
No. 2 Neutonic
Founders: Chris Williamson, James Smith, Luke Betts, Shan Hanif · Category: Nootropic energy drink · HQ: London · Website: neutonic.com
Focus without the crash is a crowded promise. Neutonic backed it with distribution. Since its November 2023 launch the brand has sold 7.5 million cans, hit No. 1 in energy drinks on Amazon and reached more than 10,000 locations, including a 500-store Sainsbury's meal deal. In April 2026 it raised $6 million at a $60 million valuation, with Grenade founder Alan Barratt on the cap table, and it expects to clear $25 million in revenue this year.
Co-founder Chris Williamson hosts the Modern Wisdom podcast, which gives the brand a built-in audience that buys.
Why it's No. 2: The strongest numbers on the list. It is further along than most names here, which makes it the benchmark the rest are chasing.
No. 3 Behave
Founder: Mayssa Chehata · Category: Better-for-you candy · HQ: New York · Website:eatbehave.com
Behave makes low-sugar gummies for grown-ups, developed with celebrity pastry chef Elizabeth Falkner and branded with a wink rather than a diet message. Chehata came up through business development at SoulCycle, Daily Harvest and Uber. Her Super Sour Skulls sold out on TikTok Shop in three days, caught the eye of a Target buyer and started rolling into almost 2,000 Target stores in April 2026, the same month the brand closed its seed round.
Why it's No. 3: The cleanest TikTok-to-shelf story of the year, in a candy aisle that has barely changed in decades.
No. 4 Bero
Founders: Tom Holland, John Herman (CEO) · Category: Non-alcoholic beer · HQ: US and UK · Website: drinkbero.com
Tom Holland launched Bero in October 2024, inspired by his own sobriety, with backing from Imaginary Ventures and Endeavor. Target gave it an endcap in about 1,400 stores, a limited Spider-Man pack sold out within a day in July 2026, and the brand has since crossed into the UK.
Why it's No. 4: The loudest brand on the list, with celebrity reach that has turned into real distribution. It sits below the top three because the famous founder does much of the lifting.
No. 5 TOSS
Founders: Grace and Sophie Devlin · Category: Dressings and condiments · HQ: London (made in Oxfordshire) · Website:toss-world.com
Two sisters, a squeezy bottle and a sleepy aisle. TOSS makes clean-label, plant-based dressings meant for far more than salad. Launched in November 2025, it already holds Great Taste Awards and listings at Harrods, Selfridges, Holland & Barrett and 100+ farm shops. In August 2026 it raised £660,500 from SFC Capital and others, and in October it launched what it calls the UK's first squeezy pesto.
Why it's No. 5: The youngest brand in our Top 5 and the purest early-stage bet, moving quickly in a category the big players have ignored.
Food & Beverage: No. 6 to No. 50
Forty-five more brands we're tracking, from first-time founders selling at farmers markets to teams with a Walmart launch already on the calendar.
Beverages
No. 6 AfroPop
Jamel Stephens · Craft soda · Oklahoma City · afropopco.com
Afrofuturist craft soda with cans designed by emerging Black artists. Now in 24 states, it signed with RNDC in 2026 to go national.
No. 7 Ape Beverages
Itai Leffler, Andrew Bagg · Canned spring water · Los Angeles · apebeverages.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Spring water in aluminum cans, built by a CPG operator and a nightlife entrepreneur with a culture-first playbook.
No. 8 Bored & Thirsty
Kurt Lohse (co-founder) · Canned water · Santa Ana, Calif. · boredandthirsty.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Every can is an artist collaboration, and festival partnerships put it straight into shoppers' hands.
Premium iced tea brewed with real tea for a UK market that never had one. Already poured at Soho House.
No. 19 Melo
Amy Bett · Sparkling kava · Los Angeles · drinkmelo.co
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Sparkling kava from Vanuatu, pitched as a calm, alcohol-free way to unwind.
No. 20 Metagave
Danielle and Anthony Amodeo · Tequila · Sarasota, Fla. · metagavetequila.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Woman-owned, small-batch tequila from a 100-year-old distillery in Jalisco.
No. 21 Olia
Chris Cook · Ready-to-drink tea · San Antonio · drinkolia.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
The first bottled olive leaf tea, from a chef who discovered it while cooking on an olive ranch.
No. 22 Otherwise Brewing
Aaron Gervais, Stellar Cassidy · Gluten-free beer · San Francisco · otherwisebrewing.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Gluten-free beer good enough to sweep gold, silver and bronze in its category at the Brewers Cup of California.
No. 23 Punchy
Paddy Cavanagh-Butler, Charlie Hobhouse · Hydration drinks · London · punchydrinks.com
A B Corp that grew more than 300% in 2025, with Waitrose, Sainsbury's, M&S and British Airways on board.
No. 24 Spade
Blake Berman · Modern soda · San Diego · drinkspade.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Zero-sugar soda with electrolytes, now in 245 Walmart and 225 H-E-B doors.
No. 25 Stiller's Soda
Ben Stiller · Better-for-you soda · US · stillerssoda.com
30-calorie takes on nostalgic sodas like the Shirley Temple, and one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2026.
No. 26 Sunbear
Danielle Krueger · Sparkling coconut water · New York · drinksunbear.com
Pitched as the first sparkling coconut water. Organic, and already in more than 100 stores.
No. 27 Sur Coffee
Mark Bell · Specialty coffee · San Clemente, Calif. · surcoffee.com
A surf-culture roaster with direct-trade sourcing. A former Hurley CMO just joined the board to take it national.
No. 28 Whatrr
Steven Luis Howell · Water · Los Angeles · whatrr.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
Spring water in a bottle that breaks down in a landfill. It went from SoCal Startup Day winner to Erewhon and 100+ stores.
Snacks, Sweets & Breakfast
No. 29 Antidote Chocolate
Red Thalhammer · Chocolate · Brooklyn · antidotechoco.com
Dark chocolate built around unexpected flavor pairings.
No. 30 B-SIDES
Yousuf Ahmed · Upcycled snacks · Brooklyn · enjoybsides.com
Protein puffs made from oat pulp left over from oat milk, free of the top nine allergens. A $500,000 seed and 5x growth this year.
No. 31 Cadootz!
Rachel Mansfield, Jordan Carpenter · Kids' snacks · New York · cadootz.com
Organic protein crackers from a cookbook author with 1.5 million followers. The first run sold out in under two hours, then came a $3 million seed and a nationwide Target launch.
No. 32 Chocolate and Love
Richard O'Connor, Birgitte Hovmand · Organic chocolate · UK and Denmark · chocolateandlove.com
Organic Fairtrade bars with 49 Great Taste Awards, sold in more than 40 countries.
Premium cat food built on Nala Cat, the most-followed cat on Instagram. Sold at Walmart, Chewy and PetSmart Canada.
No. 50 Vitract
Linta Mustafa, George Hadjigeorgiou · Gut health · US · vitract.com
At-home gut microbiome testing paired with personalized nutrition coaching.
Beauty & Personal Care: The Top 5
Beauty rewards a sharp idea faster than almost any other category. These five pair an ownable concept with proof that it's working: new capital, major retail, or word of mouth that money can't buy.
The sleep aisle is a sea of lavender and crescent moons. Sleep or Die sells dissolvable sleep strips and sleep tape with a deadpan, anti-wellness voice that reads more like a beverage brand than a supplement. That's no accident: Sudeyko spent years as a brand manager on Lay's and Walkers, then funded the launch by selling her Google shares. True Beauty Ventures invested $1 million in May 2026, and BeautyMatter put the brand on its NEXT50 list.
Why it's No. 1: The most distinctive brand on this list, in a huge and stale category, run by a founder who learned brand building at the biggest scale there is.
Ruka makes wigs, weaves and braiding hair for Afro-textured hair, built on its own patent-pending, collagen-based synthetic fiber. In May 2026 it raised $4.5 million co-led by Henkel Ventures, taking total funding to $10 million. It's stocked at Selfridges, has opened a US East Coast warehouse and expects to land a major American retailer this year.
Why it's No. 2: Real material-science IP in a category that has barely changed in decades, with a strategic investor and a clear plan for the US.
No. 3 Element Eight
Founder: Gerard Camme · Category: Luxury skincare · HQ: New York · Website: elementeight.com
Element Eight delivers oxygen to the skin using a patented carrier first developed for spine surgery. The brand has raised about $12 million and sells at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, online at Sephora and Nordstrom, through MECCA in Australia, and via an oxygen facial at Harrods.
Why it's No. 3: Defensible technology, luxury distribution on three continents and a following among estheticians that is hard to fake.
No. 4 Frasé Skin
Founders: Beau and Zac London · Category: Men's skincare · HQ: Dubbo, Australia · Website: fraseskin.com
Two brothers, a former plumber and a former carpenter, started Frasé in their parents' garage in May 2023 with skincare for "men in boots, not men in suits." The brand has passed AU$3.5 million in revenue for FY2026, and drew 535 investors into an AU$1.2 million crowdfunded round. Its US debut on Amazon came with a billboard in Times Square.
Why it's No. 4: An audience every big brand has overlooked, real revenue built from a regional town, and a scrappy US entry we're watching closely.
No. 5 Apostle
Founders: Tony Lecy-Siewert, Jamie Melbourne · Category: Men's skincare and complexion · HQ: New York · Website:apostleman.co
Apostle is betting that men will wear makeup if it's built for them. Its hero product is a tinted moisturizer in 12 shades named after Jamaican parishes and towns, powered by a "Blue Mountain Complex" of Jamaican mountain water, Scotch bonnet pepper and sweet orange, a nod to Melbourne's Kingston roots. Lecy-Siewert came from digital and creative roles at Nars and Versace, and Melbourne spent decades as a top fashion makeup artist. Since its 2023 launch the brand has landed at Ulta Beauty and Amazon, and GQ ranked it among the best men's tinted moisturizers.
Why it's No. 5: Men's complexion is a category most brands are still too nervous to touch. Apostle has a founding team with prestige beauty credentials and a product good enough for celebrity groomers.
Beauty & Personal Care: No. 6 to No. 50
Forty-five more brands rewriting the rules, from robot-made wigs to a 13-year-old's skincare line.
Skincare
No. 6 4AM
Jade Beguelin, Dr. Sabrina Sade · Skincare wipes · New York
Serum-grade facial wipes that sold out four times on TikTok Shop. A $4 million seed led by CAVU came with 1,745 Target doors.
No. 7 BASE
Yaumi Fauziah Sugiharta, Ratih Permata Sari · Personalized skincare · Jakarta · base.co.id
Personalized vegan skincare built around a data-driven Smart Skin Test, backed by East Ventures.
No. 8 Bloomeffects
Kim van Haaster · Skincare · Netherlands · bloomeffects.com
The first tulip-powered skincare, made with upcycled bulbs from her husband's family farm. It launched in 750 Ulta stores in 2026.
No. 9 ESW Beauty
Elina Sofia Wang, John Hu · Skincare · New Jersey · eswbeauty.com
Food-inspired sheet masks that moved more than a million masks and patches last year across thousands of US stores.
No. 10 evre. skincare
Maree Glading · Teen skincare · Auckland, New Zealand
Gentle skincare for teens and tweens that went from zero to 2,000 US stores in under a year.
No. 11 Exponent Beauty
Liz Whitman · Skincare · San Francisco
Activated serums that keep vitamin C and retinol as powder until the moment you use them. Its launch was Credo's biggest skincare debut of 2024.
No. 12 Knesko Skin
Lejla Cas, Sean Nezhad · Spa skincare · Los Angeles · knesko.com
Gemstone-infused collagen masks sold through luxury spas around the world.
No. 13 Pour Moi Skincare
Ulli Haslacher · Skincare · US · pourmoiskincare.com
Climate-Smart skincare matched to your local weather. Patented, and named one of TIME's Best Inventions.
No. 14 Prequel Skin
Dr. Samantha Ellis · Skincare · Los Angeles · prequelskin.com
Affordable dermatologist-developed basics at Target. It just hired former Huda Beauty CEO Nathalie Kristo to run the business.
No. 15 ROSE Ingleton MD
Dr. Rose Ingleton · Skincare · New York
Clinical skincare from a board-certified dermatologist, and a BeautyMatter NEXT50 pick for 2026.
The first new EPA-registered repellent ingredient in 25 years, as effective as DEET, from founders behind Bobble and Method.
No. 45 My Block Skin
Dujon Smith · Sun care · New York · myblockskin.com
📌 LvlUp CPG Accelerator company
Clear SPF 50 for every skin tone, and the first Black-owned sun care brand in Boots' 175-year history.
No. 46 Naked Sundays
Samantha Brett · Sun care · Sydney · nakedsundays.com
SPF you can spray over makeup, from a former TV news reporter. Now at MECCA, Sephora UK and 1,000+ US Target stores.
No. 47 Nopalera
Sandra Velasquez · Body care · New York · nopalera.com
Mexican-American body care built on nopal cactus, with $4 million raised in 2026.
No. 48 PAUME
Amy Welsman · Hand care · Toronto
Turned hand care into a full routine. Now in 700 Ulta stores and profitable.
No. 49 Sensate
Anna Gudmundson · Wellness device · London
📌 LvlUp CPG Fund portfolio company
A wearable that calms the nervous system with sound and vibration, named a TIME Innovation of the Year.
No. 50 SOLSKIN
Joel Conder · Self-tan · London · solskin.com
Self-tan for eczema-prone skin with more than 220,000 customers, powered by the 1.5-million-subscriber Dad v Girls YouTube channel.
Building one of these? Let's talk.
Want your brand on next year’s list? The founders who make it are the ones building with the right support early. Apply to Labs CPG and start your path to LvlUp investment today.
Sources
Figures come from company announcements and trade coverage as of October 2026. A selection of the pages we used:
