Positioned as the leader in the Winery-Direct-to-Consumer Wine Channel
CHICAGO, December 18th, 2018 — Winestyr, the innovative wine company revolutionizing the way consumers discover and purchase wine in America, announces today its first institutional round of funding. Led by Chicago-based Continental Investors and others including an undisclosed large strategic, Winestyr will use this fresh funding to bring their showroom model to new markets across the country and to fuel digital growth of their industry leading wine subscription and wine gift products.
Growing at over 100% year over year since 2014, Winestyr launched their first brick & mortar showroom in Chicago to complement their digital wine marketplace. “Our appointment-only showroom model has been hugely successful because it gives us the opportunity to prove that we are the only wine service that selects nothing but top-quality, small-production wines from the country’s best wine producers. Our growing portfolio of over 120 real wineries speaks for itself,” says CEO Bob Wilson. “Once people try a selection of wines from our portfolio and learn more about what we do, they quickly understand the Winestyr difference. New members leave our showroom excited to tell their friends about the wine club they just joined.”
This commitment to quality, value, and authenticity didn’t go unnoticed. According to Continental Investors Paul Purcell, “the wine industry is perfectly ripe for the innovative curated commerce experience that Winestyr delivers. We are excited to work with the team to scale this unique marketplace in a compliant fashion while giving our community of tech savvy wine enthusiasts an Amazon-prime like customer experience.”
The only platform of its kind, Winestyr’s Direct-to-Consumer wine marketplace circumvents traditional wholesalers and retailers with proprietary technology developed wholly in house. This enables them to offer wines to consumers that generally cannot be found in restaurants or on store shelves. In an industry that hasn’t changed much in over a century, Winestyr is changing the way consumers discover, purchase, and gift authentic premium wine in America. CEO Bob Wilson adds, “At the end of the day, if you’re interested in supporting small wineries and drinking America’s best hard-to-access wines, you should visit our website or one of our showrooms.”
About Winestyr
Winestyr is the first full-service, direct-to-consumer wine marketplace. The company curates the best small production wines and makes them easily accessible to consumers across the country via their industry-leading wine clubs, wine gifts, and wine marketplace platform. Learn more, shop our wine portfolio and gift collections, or become a member at www.winestyr.com.
About Continental Investors
Founded by Philip J. Purcell in 2006, Continental Investors is a strategic source of capital that leverages a combined 70+ years of investing and operating expertise in and around financial services and commerce. Continental seeks emerging and established growth platforms where their expertise beyond capital can be utilized. Investments and realizations in the Continental portfolio include Drizly (beer wine and spirits on demand), LevelUp (acquired by Grubhub) and WePay (acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase).
