What is Athletic Brewing?
The leading non-alcoholic craft beer company in the United States.
- Category
- Non-alcoholic beer
- Headquarters
- Milford, CT
- Founded
- 2017
- Employees
- 201-500 listed
- Total funding
- $251M reported
- Valuation
- ~$800M (Jul 2024)
What is Athletic Brewing?
Athletic Brewing is a non-alcoholic craft beer company founded by Bill Shufelt and John Walker. It brews beer at less than 0.5% ABV and sells through grocery, ecommerce, subscriptions, on-premise accounts, and major retail partners.
Athletic Brewing helped mainstream non-alcoholic craft beer by making IPAs, golden ales, dark beers, sours, limited releases, and seasonal brews that are marketed like modern craft beer rather than like abstinence products. Public coverage in 2024 described it as the largest non-alcoholic beer brand in U.S. grocery and a top-20 U.S. brewery by barrels sold.
The company generated about $90 million in 2023 revenue, produced more than 258,000 barrels, and held roughly 19% domestic market share in non-alcoholic beer according to NielsenIQ data cited by Morning Brew. Its production footprint spans Milford, Connecticut and San Diego, with later capacity expansion supported by a 2024 General Atlantic-led financing.
What does Athletic Brewing offer?
Athletic sells non-alcoholic craft beer across core styles, limited pilots, seasonal releases, variety packs, subscriptions, merch, and corporate gifting.
- Run Wild IPA· Core beer
- Free Wave Hazy IPA· Core beer
- Upside Dawn Golden· Core beer
- Athletic Lite· Light beer
- All Out Dark· Dark beer
- Limiteds & pilots· Seasonal
- Athletic Club subscription· Membership
- Corporate gifting· B2B
How does Athletic Brewing make money?
Athletic Brewing makes money by brewing and selling non-alcoholic beer through retail, ecommerce, subscriptions, wholesale, on-premise, airline, and gifting channels.
Athletic's online pricing shows core six-packs such as Free Wave, Upside Dawn, Atlética, and Athletic Lite around $10.99, with some online-only or limited six-packs around $14.99 and four-packs around $10.99. That puts the brand in premium beer territory, supported by higher perceived product quality, national grocery placement, and repeat purchase from moderation-oriented consumers.
The company owns brewing capacity rather than acting only as a brand marketer, so growth depends on utilization, brewing yield, ingredient cost, packaging, freight, distributor economics, and retailer velocity. The 2024 financing was tied to long-term growth and capacity, including acquiring a third brewing facility to roughly double capacity according to press coverage.
Who leads Athletic Brewing?
Athletic Brewing is founder-led by CEO Bill Shufelt and co-founder/COO John Walker.
- Bill ShufeltCo-founder & CEOCo-founder, since 2017Former finance professional who founded Athletic after giving up alcohol and seeing a gap for quality NA beer.
- John WalkerCo-founder & COOCo-founder, since 2017Award-winning brewer who helped develop Athletic's brewing process and operations.
- Andrew CrawfordGeneral Atlantic board/investor representativeInvestor since 2024Represents the growth investor perspective after the $50M financing.
- Dana NorcrossPartnerships / marketing leaderPublicly associated with partnershipsVisible in event and community partnership activity tied to Athletic's lifestyle positioning.
How do you contact Athletic Brewing's leadership?
Athletic Brewing publishes customer and company contact paths, and LeadIQ reports a first-dot-last email format. Because executive personal emails are not company-published, use public channels or verify personal addresses before outreach.
first.last@athleticbrewing.com reported by LeadIQ; personal emails not company-publishedHow much funding has Athletic Brewing raised?
Athletic Brewing has raised about $251 million over multiple reported rounds, with a July 2024 $50 million General Atlantic-led financing valuing the company around $800 million.
Athletic raised early capital after its 2017 founding, then scaled through consumer and strategic financing as non-alcoholic beer moved into mainstream grocery. A major 2022 round included Keurig Dr Pepper and other investors, helping the company expand distribution and production capacity.
The latest major confirmed round was July 2024: a $50 million equity financing led by General Atlantic with participation from existing investors. The Wall Street Journal reported the financing valued Athletic around $800 million, roughly doubling its prior valuation. Tracxn reports about $251 million in total funding over 11 rounds, but individual early-round terms are not all publicly disclosed.
How did Athletic Brewing get here?
Athletic Brewing moved from a dedicated NA taproom concept to the category leader in U.S. non-alcoholic beer.
- 2017FoundedBill Shufelt and John Walker found Athletic Brewing to make high-quality non-alcoholic craft beer.
- 2018First dedicated NA brewery and taproomAthletic opens a U.S. brewery and taproom fully devoted to non-alcoholic craft beer.
- 2020San Diego expansionAthletic acquires Ballast Point's Trade Street facility as a West Coast production base.
- 2022Strategic growth capitalNew investment, including Keurig Dr Pepper involvement, supports national expansion.
- 2023JetBlue partnership and grocery leadershipAthletic becomes the first NA beer offered by a major U.S. airline and leads grocery NA beer sales.
- Jul 2024$50M round at ~$800M valuationGeneral Atlantic leads financing to support capacity and long-term growth.
Who are Athletic Brewing's competitors?
Athletic competes with non-alcoholic beer specialists, craft brewers with NA lines, and global beer companies extending flagship brands into zero-alcohol variants.
- Heineken 0.0Global brewer's mainstream zero-alcohol lager with massive distribution.
- Guinness 0Zero-alcohol version of a globally recognized stout brand.
- Partake BrewingNA craft beer specialist with low-calorie positioning.
- Go BrewingNon-alcoholic craft brewery focused on direct-to-consumer and specialty releases.
- Best Day BrewingPremium NA beer brand with coastal lifestyle positioning.
Athletic Brewing — frequently asked questions
