Out of all the premium water bottle brands in the world, LARQ is one of the more exciting products. It is the world’s first self-purifying water bottle that uses UV-C LED technology. Founder Justin Wang bagged a deal on Shark Tank with Kevin O’Leary and Lori Greiner. According to the latest available data, LARQ is worth an estimated $50 million. LARQ was acquired by Brita in February 2024 for an undisclosed figure.
Justin Wang
Justin Wang is of Chinese descent and was raised in San Francisco, California. He worked as an academic research assistant for less than a year while studying economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Right after college, Wang worked as an investment banking associate at Merriman Capital, Inc. In 2010, he relocated to Shanghai City, China, to become an investor at L Catterton and held this role for three years.
Next Justin became the Vice President of the beauty technology firm FOREO in 2014 and was promoted to President after a year of overseeing product management, strategy and marketing. In 2016, he joined the board of luxury goods provider LELO.
How LARQ Was Born
Wang is also a nature lover who discovered that normal water bottles would eventually give out a bad-smelling odor. This means they are being infected by bacteria, which is unpleasant for users.
In 2017, he officially launched the self-cleaning LARQ water bottle. By leveraging ultraviolet-C LED technology on the bottle cap, 99.99% of odor-causing particles inside are eliminated. The founder started a Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.4 million in a month.
This helped the company make $5.5 million in revenue during its first year, $9 million in its second year, and $14 million in its third year. In 2020, LARQ raised $10 million in Series A funding led by DCM and Seventure.
LARQ’s Shark Tank Pitch
In 2021, Justin Wang’s company didn’t need more capital but still wanted to appear on season 12 of Shark Tank. He offered the Sharks 1% of his company for a stunning $500,000, the highest valuation ever pitched on the show.
The Sharks were in utter disbelief at the valuation at the beginning but Justin kept his cool. After the founder revealed LARQ’s sales performance, the atmosphere in the room changed.
Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec each offered $500,000 at different valuations. Wang asked if the three could team up for $1.5 million. Robert said no but Kevin and Lori agreed, and the final deal was $1 million for 4%.
Success After Shark Tank
After a remarkable pitch, Justin Wang’s water bottle was featured in publications such as Forbes. The deal with Lori and Kevin never closed. LARQ isn’t listed as an investment on Greiner’s website and neither shark has mentioned the company in the press. That said, LARQ had $6.5 million in the bank and plenty of capital to grow without them.
As reported by TechCrunch, LARQ was acquired by Brita GmbH in February 2024, the Germany-based parent company of the global Brita brand. It’s worth noting this is distinct from the Brita products sold in the US, which are owned by Clorox, Brita GmbH sold those North American rights in 1988.
The acquisition gives Brita GmbH a strategic re-entry point into the North American market under the LARQ brand, while LARQ benefits from Brita’s global retail reach and water filtration expertise. If the Shark Tank deal had closed, Kevin and Lori would have been in line for a significant payout.
Justin Wang remains CEO of LARQ post-acquisition, with the company still headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The company now sells four products: The LARQ Bottle PureVis, LARQ Pitcher PureVis, LARQ Bottle Filtered and LARQ Bottle Twist Top. The LARQ Bottle PureVis is highly rated by customers with a rating of 4.6 from 6,378 reviews on their website.
In addition to their website, LARQ products can be purchased on Amazon, Best Buy, and other well-known e-commerce platforms. In an interview with Forbes, Justin revealed he expected to make $30 million in revenue for 2022. Currently, LARQ is worth an estimated $50 million and has 27 employees based on their LinkedIn profile.
