Hydration Startups Raise Millions While The Category Leader Stalls

Hydration brands like waterdrop, Cirkul, air up, and Leisure Hydration raised sizable funding rounds.

Investors are backing products that encourage people to drink more water, but competition is intensifying quickly.

Unilever-owned Liquid I.V. has seen U.S. sales plateau, raising doubts that the category is easier to enter than to defend.

Harder-to-copy opportunities may be in adjacent hardware and biosensor tech, such as Epicore Biosystems’ sweat patches.