Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey—now valued at $900 million—is poised to reach unicorn status. Founder Fawn Weaver intends for it to stay Black-owned and Black-led.
The whiskey company, founded in 2016, has six investors—one, Craig Leipold, is a majority owner of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild—whom Weaver intends to buy out, Fortune reported.
Weaver’s plans to buy would make the company a unicorn as one of a few Black-led, Black-owned companies that have not been sold to a white-owned company.
“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 to the outlet.
“Every investor that comes in knows that the company has a very active secondary market,” Weaver added. Among the individual investors include Steve Mosko, CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, and Jesse Burwell, CFO of Liberty Strategic Capital.
The company’s funding was secured in an unconventional way. The Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey founder told Fortune she’s “never sent a pitch deck.”
“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.”
That won’t stop her from keeping the company from attaining unicorn status.
“I have first right of refusal on every investment in my company. And the only plan I have is to buy [all investors] out,” Weaver added, according to Fortune
. Maybe it’s because the company’s origins trace back to Nathan “Nearest” Green, a formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel the art of distilling whiskey.Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has a presence in over 30,000 stores, bars, hotels, and restaurants across 12 countries, Fortune noted. Its 432-acre distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, also attracted 200,000 visitors in 2023. It also acquired an estate in Cognac, France, encompassing “over 100 acres with Charente River frontage and a unique island,” according to Fortune.
RELATED CONTENT: Black-Owned Whiskey Company ‘Uncle Nearest’ Launches Cognac Brand