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Wellness and nutrition company raised $115 million in new funding and is boasting a new valuation of more than $1 billion, making it one of the latest unicorns in the startup world.听

The round, the company鈥檚 second infusion of venture capital in its 11 years of existence, marks a major turning point for the New Zealand-based startup, , company president and COO told Crunchbase News last week.听

鈥淭his (last) year was the first time ever with outside capital 鈥� in the company’s history that there was a material spend and effort around brand,鈥� she said.听

Athletic Greens, founded in 2010 by CEO , is known for its flagship product, AG1, a powder that can be made into a drink with 75 vitamins, minerals and nutrients meant to boost health and energy.听

While the product was sold on for a short time, today it is only available through the company鈥檚 website. But that doesn鈥檛 seem to have slowed Athletic Green鈥檚 consumer buy-in, company leaders say.听

鈥淲e have incredible momentum in our mission to help people around the world take ownership of their daily health by focusing on foundational nutrition,鈥� Ashenden said in a statement. 鈥溙切氖悠� are demanding more from the health products they use daily and we have emerged as a leader by helping people realize their functional health goals with an incredibly high-quality and convenient product, AG1.鈥�

led the funding round, with participation from and 鈥檚 family office .听

The round also attracted a long list of sports, business and media figures, including those that swear by the company鈥檚 AG1 powder. Among them: Dr. , , Alex Honnold, , , Shane Parrish, , Amy Griffin of , Joe Holder, 鈥檚 , , , , , , , , Dan Churchill, and .听

, chairman and chief investment officer at Alpha Wave Global, and Mark Vadon, founder of and , and former chairman of , will join the Athletic Greens board of directors.

鈥淭he story of how Chris (Ashenden) and the team built Athletic Greens from scratch to this point while being bootstrapped until very recently is remarkable, and we think the story is only starting,鈥� Gerson said in a statement. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e built an impressive business based on a best-in-class product, an innovative customer acquisition model, and most importantly, a relentless focus on the customer.鈥澛�

Cole, who has an extensive leadership background in food brands鈥攊ncluding about 11 years at , parent company to , , , and 鈥攋oined Athletic Greens in December.听

The new influx of money will be used to scale at basically every level of the organization, Cole said, but she鈥檒l be focusing a lot of that capital into hiring, innovating on the AG1 mixture, unveiling more products in the coming year, broadening the company鈥檚 geographic reach, and growing the company鈥檚 production capabilities.听

The money has allowed the company to market in earnest for the first time, Cole added. So far, the startup鈥檚 customer base has grown primarily from word-of-mouth. The company doesn鈥檛 disclose the exact number of subscribers that get a shipment of Athletic Greens each month, but the number is in the 鈥渉undreds of thousands,鈥� she said.听

Her five-year goal is to see that number grow to 20 million global subscribers, half of them in the United States. The company plans to get there through its tried-and-true method of 鈥渜uality over quantity, less is more, and making a habit easy, not one more thing,鈥� Cole said.听

鈥淭he fact that (AG1) changes so many lives; there’s a real noble mission of what if just most of us had 50 percent of our family, become AG customers?鈥� she added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not crazy to think about getting to those numbers of customers. 鈥� And there will be a day when Athletic Greens products are available outside of .鈥澛�

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