DioniLife is launching in the U.S. and U.K., with additional global rollout announcements to come.
The company will focus exclusively on non-alcoholic adult beverages and aims to build a portfolio of products across beverage categories, both through internal development and acquisition. The first acquisition, Mash Gang, will bring premium non-alcoholic beer with a passionate fanbase to a much broader audience.
“DioniLife introduces a new standard for celebrating and socializing with non-alcoholic beverages, with an uncompromising dedication to taste and consumer experience,” says Damian McKinney, CEO and founder. “Exceptional quality and an attention to the rituals associated with how consumers enjoy these products are paramount to how we develop our diverse portfolio. These are a far cry from some non-alcoholic ‘alternatives.’ They are first-choice selections.”
DioniLife features a team whose members spearheaded leadership, operations, innovation, finance, sales and distribution at top spirits companies including Diageo, Stoli Group, Guinness and Heineken. In addition to McKinney, formerly Stoli Group’s global CEO, the team includes Steve Wilson, global leader of innovation and an industry veteran who was previously Diageo’s head of global innovation.
“We are using the lessons we’ve learned from decades of brand-building experience to contribute to the betterment of the world, both through spreading our company philosophy and improving consumers’ beverage experience,” McKinney says.
Multiple new products and brands by DioniLife are in advanced stages of development.
“Our guiding principle is that we will never compromise on taste or quality,” Wilson says. “We will carefully release drinks as they meet our industry-leading standards. We insist on exceeding expectations in each category we enter.”
The DioniLife portfolio launch leads with Mash Gang. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2020, Mash Gang sought from the start to pioneer a new future of conscious drinking. In only a few years, Jordan Childs, co-founder and head brewer, grew from being a self-taught brewer to developing over 200 beers, creating proprietary approaches to non-alcoholic brewing, and winning multiple awards.
“We started the company without any brewing experience and only the sheer determination to create something better than the disappointing non-alcoholic beers we found flooding the market,” Childs says. “From day one, we refused to accept that what we drank had to be in any way inferior.”
Mash Gang’s experimentation led the company to achieve cult status in part due to limited availability and distribution, with standard-bearers like Chug 0.5% IPA complemented by beers brewed with unexpected ingredients such as breakfast cereals and fruit pies. Assuming the unofficial role of the “Johnny Appleseeds of NoLo,” Mash Gang has collaborated with industry leaders such as Northern Monk and Cloudwater to raise the bar for the category worldwide.
“As members of the DioniLife family, we’re excited to play an active role in a new venture that will similarly disrupt the broader non-alcoholic space and provide options people never thought possible,” Childs says.
DioniLife is backed by the Invus Group. Invus, as exclusive investment advisor to Artal, is a global equity investment firm with an evergreen capital structure operating out of offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Since its founding in 1985, it has focused on empowering entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams to transform their industries across both public and private equity investments.