PepsiCo completes its acquisition of Poppi
A farmers’ market soda becomes a $1.95 billion acquisition.
PepsiCo completed its acquisition of Poppi on May 19, 2025, two months after announcing the agreement. Behind the headline price is a familiar CPG story: a founder-built product, a distinctive brand and a much larger company with the reach to scale it.
- Purchase price
- $1.95B
- Buyer
- PepsiCo
- Company
- Poppi
- Completed
- May 19, 2025
What PepsiCo bought
Poppi brought more than another soda flavor to the portfolio. Its offer combined familiar soda cues with a lower-sugar product and a bright, fruit-forward identity. PepsiCo’s announcement emphasized the brand’s community, social presence and connections to culture alongside its functional positioning.
For a buyer with an established beverage business, the attraction was the combination: a product in a growing part of the category and a brand people already recognized.
The numbers behind the headline
The announced price was $1.95 billion. That includes $300 million in anticipated cash tax benefits, bringing PepsiCo’s stated net purchase price to $1.65 billion. A performance-based earnout sits on top, subject to specified milestones.
These figures describe different parts of the same deal. The net price is an adjustment for expected tax benefits; it is not a second transaction. The completion announcement did not disclose the earnout’s potential amount.
From the kitchen to the soda aisle
Allison and Stephen Ellsworth initially sold the drink as Mother Beverage at Dallas farmers’ markets. The shift to Poppi changed how it showed up: colorful cans, a simpler name and a place in the soda conversation. The founder’s story also became part of the marketing.
A kitchen experiment
Allison Ellsworth begins mixing homemade soda in Texas.
A Shark Tank investment
The founders secure investment from Rohan Oza.
The Poppi identity reaches shelves
Bright cans and founder-led social content help introduce the brand.
The agreement is announced
PepsiCo announces its plan to acquire Poppi.
The deal closes
Poppi officially joins PepsiCo’s portfolio.
What happens after the exit?
PepsiCo framed the next phase around expanding reach and supporting growth. In its later account of the acquisition, the company identified distribution, procurement, revenue management and product development as areas where it could help. It also said preserving the brand’s identity mattered.
That is the part to watch in an acquisition like this. A larger owner can open doors; the brand still needs to keep the qualities that made people seek it out. More availability and a familiar identity have to work together.
A brand with room to scale
For CPG founders and marketers, Poppi is a useful example of how product, packaging and a founder’s public presence can build recognition together. The acquisition puts a value on the whole business. It does not isolate the value of a logo, a campaign or a social following. The interesting question is how that identity holds up as the business reaches more people.
