Founder Fawn Weaver’s Uncle Nearest is on the brink of reaching unicorn status, Fortune reports.
As AFROTECH previously mentioned, Weaver leads the Black-owned whiskey company created in 2016 to commemorate Nathan “Nearest” Green, a formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.
The company has made significant strides in the spirits industry and is currently available in over 30,000 stores, bars, hotels, and restaurants in 12 countries, per Fortune. The company also boasts a 432-acre distillery located in Shelbyville, TN, which attracted 200,000 visitors in 2023, and has expanded to include an estate in Cognac, France, which encompasses “over 100 acres with Charente River frontage and a unique island.”
A part of the company’s continued success has been its ability to secure funding from individual support. Weaver previously mentioned to AFROTECH that the company has raised $225 million that way, its total since launching.
“I’ve never sent a pitch deck,” Weaver told Fortune. “It’s always been an investor in my company sharing with people in their network that, ‘Yeah, it’s risky as hell, but I’m willing to take that risk.’ Then they convince their peers who express interest in investing.”
Uncle Nearest has six investors that include Craig Leipold (majority owner of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild); Steve Mosko (CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group); and Jesse Burwell (chief financial officer of Liberty Strategic Capital).
Per Fortune, Uncle Nearest is now valued at $900 million.
In the future, Weaver’s goal is to buy out all her investors as she has no intention of selling the company.
“I have first right of refusal on every investment in my company. And the only plan I have is to buy [all investors] out,” she explained to Fortune. “Every investor that comes in knows that the company has a very active secondary market.”
Weaver states it is her goal to ensure Uncle Nearest will remain Black-owned and Black led.
“When talking about Black-owned consumer companies, we [Black people] have never held them in our 400 years in this country. And every single time we have sold, we sell to a white-owned company,” Weaver said. “…Rest assured that we’ll go into every spirit space that has room for growth.”
