It’s giving seltzer vibes

Pepsi announced a new $550 million investment in energy drink maker Celsius yesterday as part of a long-term distribution deal that gives Pepsi an 8.5% ownership stake.

⚡️🥤 A deeper dive… Celsius is a sugar-free, caffeinated sparkling drink that markets itself as a healthy alternative to other energy drinks and diet sodas, partnering with influencers, celebrities and fitness instructors like Olympic snowboarder Shaun White and model Sara Sampaio to promote its products on TikTok and Instagram.

• The company claims its beverages have thermogenic properties, meaning they help increase your metabolism and burn calories. And calories are the only thing Celsius seems to be burning (besides maybe rubber): in the first quarter of this year, the company’s US revenue rose 217% to reach $123.5 million.

📸 Big picture: To quote a popular industry product, buying a company that sells energy drinks could give you wings. This deal helps strengthen Pepsi’s ties to the segment, one of the beverage market’s fastest-growing non-alcoholic categories, which saw global sales roughly double from $46 billion in 2020 to $86 billion in 2021.

• The company previously acquired Rockstar – which Celsius recently overtook as America’s fourth most popular ​​energy drink – for $3.85 billion in early 2020, and invested in Bang Energy, the #3 most popular, around that same time. But the latter relationship quickly soured, and the two companies split up in June.