Black Woman-Owned Uncle Nearest, Approaches Unicorn Status – urbangeekz

Uncle Nearest, the premium black and woman-owned whiskey brand, is on the brink of reaching unicorn status.

Founded in 2016 by Fawn Weaver, the distillery is now the top-selling Blacked-owned spirits brand globally. This follows the company’s expansion into cognac and announcement in December that its recent capital raise was oversubscribed. 

Weaver says the latest funding round is a critical step in scaling the first spirits conglomerate built by a woman and person of color.

This brings Weaver’s total capital raised since Uncle Nearest’s inception to $220 million, valuing the company at $900 million. A recent report revealed that Uncle Nearest is among the fastest-growing American Whiskey companies. It starkly contrasts the ten highest-earning whiskey companies in the U.S., all led by white men.

More About Uncle Nearest

Uncle Nearest was launched to commemorate Nathan “Nearest” Green, an enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. The company has made significant strides in the spirits industry. It is available in over 30,000 stores, bars, hotels, and restaurants in 12 countries, per Fortune. 

It boasts a 432-acre distillery in Shelbyville, TN, which attracted 200,000 visitors in 2023. Uncle Nearest expanded to include an estate in Cognac, France, encompassing “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.  “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, including 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).

What’s Next For Uncle Nearest

Weaver hopes to continue growing the business and insists she does not intend to exit. “I have first right of refusal on every investment in my company. And the only plan I have is to buy [all investors] out. Every investor knows the company has a very active secondary market.”

She points to some of the most popular Black-owned consumer brands like the haircare brand Carol’s Daughter, which L’Oréal USA acquired in 2014, and Sundial Brands, one of the largest producers of hair and skin care for Black women, which Unilever acquired in 2017.

“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,” says Weaver.

She wants to stop that trend. “Rest assured that we’ll go into every spirit space that has room for growth,” Weaver says, citing her interest in tequila. However, the ultimate goal is not to be acquired. “It’s to become the acquirer and to make sure that in my lifetime, we continue to exist as the first spirit conglomerate that was not founded or led by a white male.”

Main Image: Fawn Weaver, CEO and Founder, Uncle Nearest, Inc. 

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