7 Things You Should Know About BeatBox, the Colorful RTD Brand Popular With Gen Z
In the alcohol industry’s current climate, few brands have experienced success quite like BeatBox. Ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages have experienced rapid growth, but according to a report from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the wine-based sector is one of the least represented sectors in the category. That’s the BeatBox sweet spot.
Since its launch in 2011, BeatBox has become a leader in the RTD category thanks to a few defining characteristics. As an RTD sold in Tetra Paks, a Beatbox is easy to consume, reseal, and transport. But beyond the convenience, the brand’s nostalgic marketing seems responsible for much of its traction. Boxed wine jogs college-era memories, flavors like Fruit Punch and Watermelon Lemonade evoke childhood recollections, and the neon-colored, graphic packaging recalls ’80s and ’90s style.
With its unignorable design and near-ubiquitous shelf presence, a stock of BeatBoxes will surely catch your eye at any liquor or convenience store. Here are seven things you should know about BeatBox.
The first BeatBox concoction was dreamed up on a night out in business school.
In the early 2010s, CEO Justin Fenchel, COO Aimy Steadman, and CMO Brad Schultz met while attending the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. The three shared a similar gripe with the party scene there: Alcoholic beverages were limited and simple. They liked boxed wine as a means of serving a crowd but found the flavor boring. So, the trio concocted a large-format, vodka-based punch to lug around parties, the founders told Authority Magazine, thus launching the first iteration of BeatBox.
They wanted the taste of what they were drinking to mimic the vibes of the spaces they were in. As avid music festival attendees, they sought to capture the essence of a lively concert in the beverage — hence the name “BeatBox,” which was officially introduced in 2011. Two years later, BeatBox hit the market.
Three years in, the founders brought the brand to Shark Tank.
In October 2014, Fenchel, Steadman, and Schultz appeared on Shark Tank to pitch their product with the goal to “change boxed wine forever.” At the time, BeatBox was packaged in the typical boxed-wine, bag-in-box format, with a traditional boombox printed on the exterior. The founders went on the show seeking a $200,000 investment for a 10 percent stake in the business. From there, the sharks jumped. Offers quickly rose to $400,000, then $600,000. The final offer, $1 million for a 33 percent stake, sealed the deal between Mark Cuban and the founders.
The brand’s first go after Shark Tank was not successful.
In an update after the first Shark Tank appearance, the founders said they saw little success with their 5-liter, bag-in-box packaging. Sales grew a bit, but soon after, they flatlined. The large serving size meant consumers had to spend big on a single BeatBox purchase, so the team decided to reroute. They scaled down and packaged their products in Tetra Paks, which lowered the price per unit. This move introduced the single-serve, RTD format BeatBox is known for today.
It’s a wine-based beverage — but that’s not the point.
BeatBox is not marketed as a wine company, as it doesn’t look or taste like wine. But as a wine-based beverage, part of its rocky start was figuring out how to navigate that distinction.
On top of resizing and repricing, BeatBox made an important shift in business after Shark Tank. The brand had previously relied on wine and spirits wholesalers to distribute its cases, but a decision to pivot to beer distributors helped sales skyrocket. “We happen to be wine-based, but we don’t lead with that,” Fenchel told VinePair in 2022. Once BeatBox reached beer coolers instead of room-temperature wine shelves, consumers began to catch on, he said.
Though wine-based concoctions make up the bulk of the brand’s product line, it added malt-based offerings to its lineup in 2024 to expand its reach and flavors.
Mark Cuban isn’t the only big-name investor in BeatBox — Shaquille O’Neal sees its appeal, too.
Currently, the first thing you see on the BeatBox website isn’t a beauty shot of its product line. It’s Shaquille O’Neal’s bright smile, holding a pouch of Blueberry Lemonade. In 2025, Shaq invested in BeatBox, which also introduced a flavor in his honor. “The newest BeatBox flavor combines blueberry and lemonade in a flavor mashup so big, it could only be inspired by Shaq,” reads the BeatBox press release announcing its launch. Shaq, whose disc-jockeying pseudonym is DJ Diesel, apparently discovered the beverage while on tour. He found the brand’s ethos — one that emphasizes music, partying, and overall fun — aligned with his own.
BeatBox’s wine is ‘orange wine.’
The main ingredient in BeatBox is orange wine — but not that orange wine. The brand sources wine made from oranges, thus putting it in the “Other Than Standard” (OTS) wine category. Just water, orange peels, and sugar make up the alcohol base. To yield the final product, extra sugar and flavorings are added. The use of an OTS works for the brand in multiple ways: Wines have a lower federal excise tax than spirits, and a base of orange-made (rather than grape-made) wine allows the brand to incorporate bolder, sweeter, and fruitier flavors.
An acquisition by Anheuser-Busch Inbev valued the brand at around $576 million.
In November, rumors floated of a potential buyout of BeatBox by Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) for $700 million. The acquisition, slated to close in the first quarter of this year, was confirmed in early December and gave ABI an 85 percent stake in the company for $490 million, valuing BeatBox at around $576 million. Details of the transaction state that ABI is on a track to full ownership in five years. Both ABI and BeatBox decided on a “predetermined pricing formula” that will increase ABI’s stake in BeatBox each year, which could lead to an even higher valuation for the company.
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