HOLY Energy GmbH

What does HOLY Energy GmbH own?

The company operates the single HOLY brand covering HOLY Energy, HOLY Iced Tea, HOLY Hydration, and branded hardware like shakers.

Is HOLY publicly traded?

No. HOLY Energy GmbH is private, controlled by its three founders with minority venture investors.

Who founded HOLY?

Frederick Jost, Philipp Nass, and Mathias Horsch, friends of nearly two decades, founded the company in a Berlin shared apartment in September 2020. Jost and Horsch are co-CEOs and Nass is CMO.

Where is HOLY headquartered?

Berlin, Germany, with production in Germany and sales across six European markets.

How much has HOLY raised?

Approximately 12.3 million euros in total, including a 10.5 million euro Series A in August 2023 led by Left Lane Capital.

What are HOLY's sales?

The company reports cumulative sales exceeding 180 million euros, a profitable eight-figure annual run rate since roughly 2022, and more than 10,000 retail stores carrying the products.

Who owns HOLY Energy GmbH?

The three founders hold the majority. Minority stakes belong to Left Lane Capital, V3 Ventures, OMR, FoodLabs, Simon Capital, and founder-investors including the Just Spices and YFood founders.

Jost, Nass, and Horsch have been close friends for nearly twenty years. Jost and Horsch met at TU Munich; Nass spent years at a New York marketing agency. They had wanted to build a company together for some time, and the idea that stuck was a frustration of their own: soft drinks forced a choice between taste and conscience, and the industry had not meaningfully changed that tradeoff in decades.

They founded the company in September 2020 in a shared apartment in Berlin, in the middle of the pandemic's e-commerce surge. The first product, HOLY Energy, launched around April 2021: a powdered energy drink mix aimed at the gaming and creator audience, sold direct through the company's own webshop.

Creator partnerships drove early traction. HOLY built sponsorship relationships across German YouTube and Twitch, positioning itself as the gaming community's alternative to Red Bull. Within its first years the brand had sold more than 10 million drinks and passed 200,000 customers across Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland. Horsch has stated the company reached an eight-figure annual revenue run rate profitably by around 2022, a claim that stood out in a period when most venture-backed food startups were burning cash.

The August 2023 Series A of 10.5 million euros led by Left Lane Capital funded the next phase: physical retail. HOLY moved from pure direct-to-consumer into supermarkets and drugstores, building distribution that reached more than 10,000 stores and six countries. Product lines broadened from Energy into HOLY Iced Tea and HOLY Hydration, making the brand a general powdered soft drink platform rather than a gaming energy niche player.

By 2026 the company reports cumulative sales above 180 million euros, a community it calls the HOLY Squad exceeding 2 million members, and a team of 150 to 200 people. It remains independent of the beverage majors and headquartered in Berlin.

The company's environmental case is format-level: powder concentrates eliminate most water transport weight and single-use can waste, and the tubs use recyclable packaging. These are structural advantages of the product design rather than certified claims; HOLY holds no B Corp, organic, or Fairtrade certification of record.

The health positioning, sugar-free formulations with disclosed caffeine content, is a product framing rather than third-party validation. No verified independent certification applies.

HOLY's principal external validation is commercial: the Left Lane Capital investment round was covered internationally, and the company's founders are regular subjects of German business and marketing press including deutsche-startups and OMR. Profitable scaling to an eight-figure run rate has been specifically highlighted in founder coverage as unusual among venture-backed food startups.

No product recall, regulatory action, or major public controversy is on record against the company. Category-level considerations apply: as a creator-marketed caffeinated product, it sits in a segment that draws periodic scrutiny over energy drink marketing to younger audiences, though HOLY positions its products for adults.