With an acquisition by Infuze, beverage tech company LifeFuels is back

Following a freshly-inked deal with Utah water flavoring company Infuze Hydration, Reston, Virginia-based beverage tech company LifeFuels is getting a detox.

After seven years, founders Jonathon Perrelli and Rob Lawson-Shanks shuttered the company, which developed a line of smart nutrition bottles and related products, in March of this year. It had officially put its smart nutrition water bottle on the market for consumers in late 2019.

At the time, Perrelli wrote in a Linkedin post that the pandemic had been difficult for many small businesses.

“The world of startups is an onerous one in the best of times,” he wrote. “The challenges that many small businesses have faced with the pandemic over the past year has been crippling and LifeFuels is no exception. While the outcome for our customers, our team and our investors is so very disappointing, we can’t help but also be proud of bringing the world’s first smart nutrition bottle, pod, and app trifecta to life.”

Given its multiple patent approvals, though, the company’s statement noted that they would work on finding new avenues for the product. Prior to its closure, LifeFuels had grown to a 50-person team, raising $5.3 million in a 2017 seed round and a $20 million Series A investment and partnership from beverage giant Keurig Dr. Pepper, Washington Business Journal reported.

“We are exploring alternative scenarios for our IP (20 Patents strong) and platform to hopefully continue,” LifeFuels wrote. “However, the bottles we love and pods that nourished so many will no longer be available.”

Now, it appears as though the additional work may have come to fruition. Earlier this fall, Utah-based Infuze Hydration announced that it had secured a deal over the summer to acquire LifeFuels and put its product back on the market. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are excited to announce to all of our customers that LifeFuels is again available!” an announcement post from Infuze reads.

With the deal, the Virginia company has relocated to Logan, Utah, and Infuze took over its product lines and services. It also developed Infuze “elixirs” that can be used in the LifeFuels system, creating a joint product. Neither LifeFuels nor Infuze responded to a request for comment on the deal.

On top of its patented water bottle, LifeFuels had developed an app for health insights based on users’ nutrition and hydration habits. In its announcement post, Infuze said it would have the app back up and running to its full capacity in a few weeks.