Poppi Founders Launch a Hydration Brand to Rival Giants Like Gatorade

The Ellsworths’ self-funded hydration brand targets everyday consumers and squares them off against Gatorade-owned PepsiCo, the company they sold Poppi to last year

Allison and Stephen Ellsworth pulled off what Big Soda couldn’t — adding prebiotics and making soda something people feel better about drinking — and PepsiCo paid $1.95 billion for the result.

Now the husband-and-wife duo behind clean soda brand Poppi is back with a second act, this time coming for the growing hydration space with Jetty, sold in ready-to-drink bottles and ready-to-mix powders.

The Ellsworths are funding the company themselves with $2.5 million. The launch comes about 18 months after PepsiCo closed its purchase of Poppi in May 2025 and puts Jetty against PepsiCo-owned Gatorade. 

“Hydration is a $13 billion category, but consumers are leaving traditional sports drinks and looking for better-for-you ways to hydrate,” said Stephen. “These brands have long been engineered for men, athletes, exercise and performance. That’s why retailers are so excited about Jetty. We are finally delivering a hydration brand for everyday consumers – people navigating work, travel, social plans, parenting, late nights, early mornings and everything in between.”

Allison said the idea came from her own struggle with chronic dehydration. When she went looking for an electrolyte drink, she said everything she found was made for high-performance athletes, heavy on sodium and full of artificial ingredients. 

“There was no brand I related to,” Allison said.

Jetty’s formula dials those levels down. Each bottle contains 100 milligrams of sodium, 310 milligrams of potassium and 100 milligrams of magnesium, along with B vitamins and prebiotics, 6 grams of sugar and 45 calories. Jetty says its products contain no artificial colors, dyes or sweeteners and that its bottles are designed to have a lower carbon footprint.

The brand launches in five flavors: Watermelon, Orange Mango, Fruit Punch, Black Raspberry and White Cherry. Jetty is available online at Target and Amazon and on shelves at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide.

The couple is splitting duties much as they did at Poppi. Allison will serve as chief brand officer, while Stephen will serve as chief executive officer. 

Gatorade, for its part, has spent the year reinventing itself. 

In March, the PepsiCo brand rolled out a low-sugar line nationwide with 75% less sugar than its classic Thirst Quencher and no artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors. A month later, it went further, repositioning itself around everyday hydration and beginning to phase out artificial colors. By May, it had added “Body of Science,” a multiyear research effort through the Gatorade Sports Science Institute focused on women’s hydration and nutrition, with Venus Williams as ambassador.

Several brands are now trying to hydrate the masses. 

Plezi Hydration, co-founded by Stephen and Ayesha Curry and former first lady Michelle Obama, relaunched this spring with a reformulated drink marketed toward everyday consumers as well as athletes.

“This is not just for athletes. It’s for moms on the go, busy working people, kids at school,” Ayesha Curry told Athletech News in April. 

Cure Hydration, a powder brand founded in 2019 by triathlete Lauren Picasso, is now sold in more than 20,000 stores, from Target to Ulta Beauty, and Picasso told ATN in August she’s amused hydration is growing “as fast as it is, because it’s so basic.” 

Even the gym water fountain is getting a makeover: Drop Water, a startup now in about 10 clubs, makes refill stations that let members add electrolytes and other boosts to their own bottles.