Drinking water isn’t exactly high-tech, at least not historically. Lately, though, new technology such as $80 “smart” water bottles that monitor your water intake and give you reminders to drink water and companies that use electrolytes and other nutrients to gussy up water have emerged. But one company, El Segundo-based FluidLogic, just raised $15 million to go beyond that and give water the 21st-century touch.
Last week the company announced a $15 million extension to its series A funding round led by the private equity firm Solyco Capital. The company declined to disclose how much it raised in total.
Solyco Capital is joining a rather active roster of investors – some of FluidLogic’s early backers include Jrue Holiday, a two-time National Basketball League All-Star and Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist. Also on that roster are soccer player and Olympic medalist Lauren Holiday and NASCAR championship winner Jimmie Johnson.
Perhaps the sports-studded investing team has to do with the product’s origin story. FluidLogic was cofounded in 2016 by motorsports enthusiast and off-road motorcyclist Ed Jaegar. The company was founded on the idea of active hydration – instead of depleting your energy and hydrating afterward, or by aestheticizing water consumption through stainless steel $50 Stanley cups, what if you could stay hydrated and remain at peak performance all the time?
“We get ourselves into a state of dehydration and then we need special tools to get us out of that. And those have the electrolytes and they have the salts and they have the sugars,” said Sara Blackmer, the chief executive at FluidLogic. “And those recovery supplements are really focused around the fact that you’ve got yourself to that state. Active hydration is the premise that if we help you stay hydrated from the beginning, you never get into a state of dehydration.”
‘Active hydration’
FluidLogic is different from high-tech water bottles and electrolyte-packed drinks. Blackmer, who is also a senior partner at Solyco Capital, met the company in Austin during the 2020 IndyCar trials, where she saw FluidLogic’s hydration system embedded in auto racing cars. The water receptacle, which can be outfitted in a car, connects to the driver’s helmet via tubes and administers a specific amount of water through a mouthpiece over the course of the activity based on the user’s height, weight, outside temperature and heart rate.
The system is popular among motorsport athletes – 30% of IndyCar, NASCAR and BAJA 1000 drivers use FluidLogic in their vehicles. NASCAR and Formula 1 typically start their seasons in Spring and don’t end until the Fall, meaning drivers are clad in a protective body suit and helmet in a warm car during the warmest months of the year.
“FluidLogic has been a staple of mine since day one, and is a critical element of my success,” investor and NASCAR driver Johnson said in a statement. “I have been a part of the hydration system’s evolution from its early days in off-road racing to its integration into NASCAR and IndyCar.”
In professional race car driving, where the winners are determined by the 100th of a second and performance and precision is at top of mind, engineers are willing to pay for every fraction of a second faster a car can go. Pit crews are athletes in their own right – they have workouts that help them carry heavy tires and stay nimble when working at a race. They will even tinker cars based on how much humidity is in the air or how damp the ground is.
“100th of a second is what wins and loses races, right?” Blackmer said. “IndyCar engineers will pay $100,000 for a 10th of a second performance gain. So that’s like $1 million in value.”
FluidLogic’s systems start at roughly $980.
The company is also working with the military. In August, it was selected for a $1.9 million Tactical Funds Increase from the U.S. Air Force to create wearable water drinking systems as well as add-ons to outfit vehicles with water intake technologies.
Everyday water intake
But the company is also broadening its scope with products geared toward sports hobbyist who wants to improve performance without reaching under their bikes for a water bottle – though Blackmer declined to provide details.
Eventually, Blackmer said, its available market will be all 8 billion people on Earth who need to drink water every day – including you, who should probably drink some water right now. There are postal service workers delivering packages in hot trucks, warehouse workers who perform physically strenuous tasks and construction workers sweating in high temperatures.
Similar devices may also be useful for people with disabilities who aren’t able to drink water without assistance due to mobility issues, or doctors and attending physicians stuck in a 17-hour surgery – several studies have found even mind dehydration among doctors and nurses can have negative cognitive effects like poor short-term memory and reduced vigor.
“What I would envision is that this becomes (a return on) investment for the company, for their employee base,” Blackmer said. “It says: I have improved productivity, I’ve reduced worker’s compensation, I’ve reduced downtime, I’ve improved their overall health and wellness and now my insurance costs are down because I have an overall healthier workforce. I reduce turnover because I am giving them something that makes them feel so much better.”
