Global drinks giant acquires Hyro for US$1.2B — Side Stage's first unicorn exit

The deal delivers a fund-returning result for Side Stage Ventures, 33 months after it wrote the first institutional cheque into the Australian hydration brand.

Hyro, the Australian hydration brand founded by Steve and Taylor Chapman, has been acquired by a global beverage strategic for approximately US$1.2 billion — capping one of the fastest consumer-brand exits in recent Australian memory and handing Side Stage Ventures its first unicorn outcome.

The acquisition lands roughly 33 months after Side Stage led Hyro's growth round at a A$30 million pre-money valuation — a timeline that closely mirrors Grüns' ~US$1.2 billion sale to a strategic acquirer in 2026, the comparable the founders themselves cited when they raised.

The first cheque that mattered

For Side Stage, the result validates a thesis co-founders Markus Kahlbetzer and Ben Grabiner have repeated since the firm's earliest funds: back outlier founders in big markets, write the first cheque, and play long-term games with long-term people. Partners had flagged Hyro internally as a potential fund-returner at the time of investment.

"We back people. Hyro was a repeat founder, a category we believed in, and a brand consumers chose to make part of their identity."

The Chapmans grew Hyro from a Manly kitchen bench to a US-scaled subscription business across Australia and the United States, retaining founder control through to exit. The acquisition is expected to fold Hyro into the buyer's growing functional-hydration portfolio while retaining the brand and team.