Coravin uncorks $22 million in funding
Coravin, the company formerly known as Wine Mosquito, has raised another $22 million in private equity funding. That brings the total equity sold to $40 million (plus another $3 million in debt). The lead investor of this round, closed on November 8, was not publicly disclosed. Neither were company revenues. Nor was the valuation.
The privately held company, based in Burlington, MA, sells a wine preservation/extraction device that uses a hollow needle to penetrate the cork of a wine bottle not unlike a mosquito if Bacchus designed mosquitoes. Over about 30 seconds, it injects argon gas to pressurize the bottle and then extracts a glass of wine without removing the cork. The device lists for about $300 retail and replacement argon canisters list at $18 a pair. That’s enough argon for about 30 glasses of wine.
While this price is low for restaurants compared to many by-the-glass systems, it does seem steep for consumers. Nonetheless, the company continues to raise capital at an astonishing clip. Sales were briefly halted in 2014 after complaints of exploding wine bottles. The company now recommends using a “wine bottle sleeve” when opening bottles.
The parody Twitter account @shitmysommsays recently tweeted “If you need a Coravin at home, you need more friends.”
The last company in the wine space to raise this much private equity was Lot 18, which raised $33 million in 2011.
UPDATE: Vivino, a wine app developer, raised $25,099,884 in private equity funding in January of this year.
On November 28th, 2016 at 2:49 pm ,Ridesmith wrote:
Never works , never will work , wrong idea scientifically speaking . Bad science and if you can’t smell or taste it, you need to be trained by a pro; check out the CMS website or MOW for a lesson. Particularly bad with older wines; read E Peynaud .
On November 28th, 2016 at 5:04 pm ,l wrote:
Truly an asinine idea that cleverly dupes the stupids.
On November 28th, 2016 at 8:08 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Ridesmith – do you have the link(s)?
My main objection is that it is antisocial. Open a bottle and share!
On November 29th, 2016 at 8:27 am ,Bob Rossi wrote:
I think it might be a great device for restaurants. Years ago I visited a number of restaurants with the aim of writing a story about which wine preservation system worked best. I never wrote my story because my conclusion was that none of them worked well enough to be worthwhile. The restaurant that had the best method of dealing with left over wine was the one that had a policy that at the end of the evening, every employee could have a glass of unfinished wine, and what was left was tossed. So maybe Coravin is useful for restaurants. But I certainly wouldn’t buy one.
On November 29th, 2016 at 12:42 pm ,RobinC wrote:
Greg Lambrecht has his finger on the pulse of the sector of American wine consumers who do not collect or invest in wine but just want to drink a glass of fine wine from time to time in relative solitude. I appreciate that most sommeliers or Masters of Wine or members of the Billionaires Club do not need this system, but I think that those who are in the business of giving advice to the wine-drinking public should get their heads on straight.