Smart water bottle maker Larq announced this week that it has been acquired by filtration giant Brita. More specifically, Brita GmbH, the German company founded in 1966, which spun off and sold its North/South America division to Clorox in 1988.
Brita GmbH maintains the trademark in the rest of the world, but is currently prohibited from selling products under its own brand name in America. Among other things, this acquisition provides the company with a clear re-entry point in the previous market with an existing—if not widely known—brand.
Founded in late 2017, Bay Area-based Larq is best known for its line of smart water bottles, which use a UV light built into the cap to reduce bacteria that builds up inside the dark, liquid object. The company has since expanded into a water pitcher, which combines UV with standard water filtration, more in line with what we’ve come to expect from Brita.
“They wanted to expand back into North America on their B2C side,” Larq founder and CEO Justin Wang he tells TechCrunch. “Lark provided a natural extension of that, geographically. But also, in terms of premiumization and digital transformation, this business is traditionally 70-80% offline. They are in the process of making a big digital transformation and we are the exact opposite. Seventy to 80% is online for us.”
Larq’s retail footprint is modest, with its product available in about 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores. While it currently has no U.S. footprint, Brita GmbH has both enormous international market reach and the kind of retail expertise that gets its foot in the door. Larq, meanwhile, would spearhead online sales efforts.
Brita US (Clorox) will remain the elephant in that particular room for the foreseeable future, but the company’s longtime parent is gearing up for an interesting battle — one in which it can’t use its own ubiquitous name.
Wang believes that both Larq and its new parent have the upper hand when it comes to innovation, however.
“I think Clorox is essentially running this business more as a cash cow,” he says. “That’s what they do. Clorox acquires businesses, expands their footprint on store shelves, and squeezes every dollar they can out of it. Germany has relied more on the innovation of its filters and business models.”
Larq will maintain its current product portfolio while seeking to expand its offerings in ways that combine its technology with Brita. This will likely involve a continued focus on things like app connectivity and hydration tracking.
