Can Kim Kardashian help an energy drink break through a crowded market?

Throughout Kim Kardashian’s two-decade career in the public eye, the reality TV star’s entrepreneurial endeavors have included shapewear clothing brand Skims, makeup brand KKW Beauty, cofounding a private equity firm, and a super popular mobile game.

But with her latest venture, Kardashian is stretching her mogul credentials into beverages, which has been familiar terrain for celebrities. She has become a “cofounder” of the energy drink company called Update. Though the startup has existed for four years—meaning Kardashian wasn’t a day-one founder—Update’s CEO and cofounder Daniel Solomons tells Fast Company that she has been a steady customer since 2023 and two years ago, began to offer feedback on the brand’s formula and packaging.

Update isn’t disclosing if Kardashian took an equity stake in the brand as part of her appointment as a cofounder, though Solomons says that “she genuinely loved how the product made her feel.”

On Tuesday the upstart energy drink also announced a 4,000 store distribution deal with Walmart that begins on March 1. Before the Walmart deal, Update was primarily sold through direct-to-consumer channels, and Solomons noticed on his Shopify account that especially large orders were being placed by Kardashian’s team. He was able to reach out to her through mutual connections.

“That organically just turned into a situation where she was really excited to get involved, reached out, and wanted to partner up and formalize it,” says Solomons. “I’m really bullish about the growth of the category and how we can add to that.”

REBRANDING THE ‘TECH BRO’ ENERGY

Solomons says Kardashian helped advise on Update’s new packaging and product formulation. Solomons says the startup’s initial labeling was too “masculine, tech bro” and Update wanted to aspire to a design that’s more gender neutral. 

The relaunched portfolio adds new grape and pineapple flavors and Update made tweaks to the berry, peach, and mandarin flavors, a process called reformulation. It is especially common for food and beverage startups to reformulate after they debut when they are able to get in-market consumer feedback. Solomons says the changes were intended to make the beverages “more true to fruit,” meaning as close to the real taste profile of, say, an actual pineapple.

Update also involved Walmart, sending the retailer formula samples and packaging assets to get its feedback. Later this year, the brand expects to expand into additional major retailers and will launch more products beyond the core lineup.

Solomons says Update also brings a distinct proposition to the market by using the lab-produced paraxanthine, rather than caffeine, as the active ingredient to deliver energy. There have been few studies on paraxanthine, though early research suggests that it is relatively safe. Paraxanthine is a compound that the human body produces after consuming caffeine and Solomons claims that it has a similar bitter taste profile, but doesn’t have the jittery side effects that some experience when drinking caffeine-based coffee or energy drinks.

BETTING ON A BUZZY, BOOMING CATEGORY

Update is aiming to get a firmer foothold in the fast-growing U.S. energy drinks and shots market whose sales grew by 65% to $23.9 billion during a five-year period ending in 2024, according to Mintel. The market researcher estimates sales will hit $33.4 billion by 2029. 

“It is a darling category right now,” Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, tells Fast Company. He says energy drinks sales are far outpacing coffee and tea, two rival caffeine-focused beverage categories.

The market is dominated by three players that command 70% of sales: Monster Beverage, Red Bull, and Celsius Holdings. The larger players Monster Energy and Red Bull have lately reported double-digit sales increases, while Celsius’s revenue for the first nine months of 2025 jumped 75% from the prior year, as the core brand grew, but also due to the recent acquisitions of Rockstar Energy and Alani Nu, the later sold in colorful packaging and marketed heavily to women. Alani Nu was founded in 2018 by fitness influencer and coach Katy Hearn and sold five years later for $1.8 billion to Celsius.

Monster and Celsius are expected to release their fourth-quarter earnings this Thursday.

Energy drinks have benefited from a decades-long trend of favoring cold drinks over hot and, more recently, the skyrocketing price of coffee due to tariffs, which has led some shoppers to defect when looking for their energy fix. Celsius, in particular, has been credited with luring more female drinkers into a category that was traditionally marketed to extreme sports lovers, branding that was the core of both Red Bull and Monster.

CELEBRITIES BOOST MARKETING, BUT DON’T ENSURE LONGEVITY

While Kardashian’s involvement will give Update a marketing jolt, especially through any support the star may offer through her Instagram and TikTok channels that have a combined 364 million followers, there’s no guarantee that a celebrity-backed beverage brand will be a hit with consumers.

Look no further than sports and energy drink brand Prime Hydration, which was founded by internet personalities Logan Paul and Olajide “KSI” Olatunji. Bloomberg reported it was set to surpass $1.2 billion in annual sales by the end of 2023, a mere two years after it launched. But sales have sputtered, with the Prime’s energy drink volume dropping 57% for the first nine months of 2025 from the prior-year period, according to Beverage Digest.

Zoa Energy, cofounded by actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, got a boost when it sold a majority stake to Molson Coors in 2024. But the five-year-old brand has less than 1% of the total U.S. energy drink market, which is also where Prime stands in the category.

“I suspect consumers are starting to get wary of it now,” says Stanford. “Because every celebrity has a beverage brand now. People can only consume so many drinks.”

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