Side Stage Ventures backs Australia's fastest-growing hydration brand

The Manly-born electrolyte company Hyro has closed a growth round led by Side Stage Ventures, in what insiders describe as the firm's biggest consumer bet to date.

Side Stage Ventures has led a multi-million-dollar growth round into Hyro, the fast-scaling Australian hydration brand, betting that the husband-and-wife founders can repeat their consumer success on a global stage.

The raise, understood to value the Manly-based business at around $30 million pre-money, gives Side Stage the lead position and first institutional cheque in a company that has compounded revenue every month since launching in April 2024.

Hyro was founded by Steve and Taylor Chapman. Steve previously built energy-drink brand Shine to roughly $60 million in retail sales across 7,000 stores before turning his attention to the electrolyte category — a market he argues is "built for athletes and sick people" and badly underserving the everyday adult.

For Side Stage co-founders Markus Kahlbetzer and Ben Grabiner, the deal extends a thesis the firm has run since inception: back outlier founders in large markets, and write the first cheque.

"We write the first cheque into the best early-stage companies, then lean in. Hyro is exactly the kind of outlier-founder, big-market bet we were built for."

The company has grown from $7,000 to roughly $800,000 in monthly revenue in 25 months, crossing 11,600 active subscriptions with a subscription take rate above 80 per cent. Side Stage is understood to have been drawn to the unit economics: a 6.1× lifetime-value-to-acquisition-cost ratio and a roughly three-month payback on each subscriber.

Eyes on America

Proceeds will largely fund a US launch, with the Chapmans relocating to Southern California. The brand has spent the past six months building US infrastructure — incorporation, local manufacturing, Amazon and TikTok Shop, third-party logistics and a Shopify backend — ahead of the move.

The deal continues Side Stage's run of backing globally ambitious founders out of Australia, joining a portfolio that includes Leonardo.Ai, MagicBrief, Airtasker, Go1 and Mr Yum. For a fund that prides itself on a high "helpfulness-to-cheque-size ratio", a category-defining consumer brand is a notable swing.

Existing Hyro backers — a roster of athletes, creators and family offices — are understood to have followed on.