My name is Caroline Brain, and I’m the founder of Kif & co. Six years ago I was in the thick of some challenging chronic health issues that turned my life upside down. After a lot of research  and too many doctor’s visits, I learned that all my issues stemmed from poor gut health, and I was told by health professionals that I needed to start incorporating more probiotics into my everyday diet.

Fueled by my trust in Mother Nature and the magic of ancient remedies, I went all-in on fermenting my own foods, specifically brewing a widely unknown drink called “kefir soda”—and wow, did I feel the difference.

Kefir soda is an ancient probiotic beverage consumed for thousands of years due to its powerful gut health benefits. It’s light in taste, low in sugar, and potent in probiotics. This was exactly what I needed to heal.

With my strong culinary curiosity, I started experimenting and crafting recipes for my kefir soda that I began to share with friends & family. They not only came back for more but also remarked on how they couldn’t believe it was fermented or healthy. Around the same time, I found that most fermented foods (I’m looking at you, kimchi and sauerkraut) aren’t exactly mainstream munchies for the average American. I took my craft kefir soda to farmer’s markets, sharing my small-batch creations and found kefir soda to be much more approachable to the modern consumer. Amidst the glut of positive feedback, Kif was born!

If you’re thinking, “what is kefir? I’ve never heard of it!” you’re definitely not alone.

Kefir cultures are powerful little colonies of beneficial bacteria & yeast that work their fermentation magic, transforming simple ingredients into a potent probiotic drink. Think of them as the tiny but mighty gardeners of your gut garden.

How do we use kefir?

We let these powerful probiotic cultures work wonders by fermenting sugar and water. Once the kefir cultures have “eaten” all the sugar (meaning it’s fully fermented), we add in real fruits and herbs. The result? A bubbly, probiotic-rich drink with vibrant flavors—aka Kif!

The origins of kefir are widely debated – some say they originated in Mexico from the skins of the prickly pear cactus while others argue they have roots in the Caucasus mountains. Regardless, kefir has been consumed all over the world for centuries. This probiotic powerhouse shares a rich history with its better-known bubbly cousin, kombucha.

While kefir is fermented with kefir cultures, the popular drink kombucha is fermented with a different symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). Both kefir and kombucha contain probiotics, but we prefer kefir because it’s naturally lower in sugar, caffeine-free, and is much lighter in taste – none of that notorious vinegar-y taste that you find in kombucha!

When I started Kif over four years ago, hardly anyone knew what kefir soda was. But now? Gut health is booming! In fact, 2 in 3 Americans report experiencing gut health issues on a weekly basis. Consumers are finally realizing that health is wealth, and they’re investing in it. 

There is growing consumer demand for prebiotic and probiotic drinks that don’t just support gut health but actually taste delicious. Don’t believe us? Let the data do the talking!

• US sales of prebiotic and probiotic soda increased 210% from April 2022 to April 2023, according to SPINS. (Food Business News)
• Functional water products containing prebiotics and probiotics are on an upwards trajectory, too, with sales up 18% year-over-year. (Food Business News)
• There has also been a rise in consumer understanding of the importance of gut-microbiome, with Innova Market Insights finding that two in three consumers now recognize gut health as key to overall well-being (Food Navigator)

Kombucha’s rise to fame is a perfect case study in how fast functional beverages can take off. In 2014, the kombucha market was valued at $1M and within seven years, the market grew to a $1B industry, projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.2% (Grand View Research). 

Now, the healthy soda market is bubbling for a similar boom. As of 2023, the healthy soda market was valued at approximately $12.8B in 2023 and is projected to reach $27.4B by 2032, growing at a robust CAGR of 8.9% (DATAINTELO). The two fastest growing healthy soda brands, Olipop and Poppi, are now approaching $1B in annual sales, so this category is not only here to stay but growing astronomically every year.

Fermented beverages and healthy soda have already proven their nationwide demand, thriving in natural food stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Erewhon, Lassens, and Bristol Farms, as well as cafes, fitness studios, and beyond. Now, these fizzy functional bevs are breaking into the mainstream—Costco is on board, and even Walmart is launching a ‘Modern Soda’ section in 4,300 locations throughout 2025.

Both kombucha and healthy soda categories address the rising consumer demand in gut health but from two different angles:

• Kombucha with its high efficacy yet niche vinegary flavor
• “Healthier sodas” with their more mass appeal taste but an industrialized manufacturing process engineered to do just that, resulting in dubious function

Kif combines the best of both categories.

• A probiotic powerhouse, Kif is packed with 10+ probiotic strains and over 12B+ probiotic cultures in every can.
• Kif also delivers an approachable and delicious flavor profile that makes gut health easy and enjoyable. We are bringing some serious fizz to the future of functional drinks!

Kif is committed to providing consumers with highly efficacious, deliciously refreshing, and all natural products. We are not your run-of-the-mill “healthy” soda - we are Kif, Nature’s Soda.

What does that mean?

Kif is 100% real ingredients with 12 billion+ probiotics and less than 6g of sugar in every can. This is soda the way Mother Nature intended it to be.

Unlike our competitors, our products are not powder-based nor lab-manufactured and engineered probiotic formulas. Our proprietary brewing process is naturally fermented with live probiotics.

Kif is also uniquely herbal-focused. We believe that Mother Nature knows best – the magic is in plants and probiotics. With Kif, you can always expect:

• No natural flavors
• No artificial ingredients
• No fake sweeteners
• No preservatives

Our kefir soda is non-GMO, unpasteurized, vegan, gluten-free, caffeine-free, low sugar, and most importantly, made with real fruits and herbs. Kif is 95%+ organic and we’re making moves on getting our USDA Organic Certification. 

Our clean ingredients include: 

• filtered water
• kefir cultures*
• cane sugar* (for fermentation purposes only)
• real fruit purees
• herbs*

*organic

During COVID, I launched Kif at farmer’s markets, forced to find creative and enticing ways to get people to 1) sample anything and 2) specifically sample a fermented drink no one knew anything about. I can tell you that was no easy feat! From there I reiterated and fine-tuned our recipes in my home kitchen and gradually worked our way into retail by 2022. Within two years, I was able to get Kif in over 100+ independent retailers and 6 major natural grocer chains without the assistance of any formal broker or paid sales team.

To get to this point, I built out a small micro-brewery and hired a tiny but mighty team of three. Up until mid-2024, our focus had been on growing in retail and scaling our microbrewery into a full-blown self manufacturing facility. However, our plans drastically changed thanks to a highly accredited and informative 4-month long CPG accelerator program called SKU. Upon completion of SKU, we sacrificed short term gains to strategically establish a sustainable long-term business model, which led us to a critical brand refresh and strategic operational shift.

For the last few months, I’ve been working diligently with one of our advisors to shift from self-manufacturing to co-manufacturing. This essential production transition will allow us to significantly scale up and maximize efficiency, agility, and profitability. Once this is completed we will be able to enhance our scalability and significantly strengthen our unit economics as well as improve our margins. 

With shifts in our operational foundation nearly complete, Kif is in a solid position to scale in the coming year. Although our revenue was slightly lower in 2024, we believe that 2025 will be a breakout year for our company. 

Future projections are not guaranteed.

We used the latter end of 2024 to refine our marketing strategy, honing in on our messaging and positioning to better connect with our audience. As a small business, educating consumers is both challenging and costly, so we took matters into our own hands with some rogue market research. The results? Our target consumers already see Kif as a soda—and we think they’re onto something. We were marketing our products as kefir water, but raising awareness around an unknown product category is an extremely tall task. 

We needed to meet our consumers where they were—and they were reaching for healthy soda. Time and time again, they placed Kif in the rapidly growing healthy soda category, and we listened. In order to get in front of our consumers, we needed to be part of a category that’s on a larger growth trajectory with our target market.

We are very excited to announce that in the Spring of 2025, we are rolling out a brand refresh, and we are repositioning ourselves! By shifting from Kif Kefir Water to Kif Nature’s Soda, we’re embracing what our audience already knows and loves: Kif is the better-for-you soda, crafted with real ingredients, natural fizz, and gut-loving probiotics.

We’re incredibly proud of our roots and are committed to growing strategically and sustainably. Our approach is simple: own our backyard first and focus on doing things right locally before scaling nationally.

2023-2024: Grassroots growth in our backyard

• Grew Kif on our hometurf: Southern California 
• Now in 100+ independent retailers and 6 large natural grocers
• Focused on grassroots & word-of-mouth marketing

2025-2026: Establishing a beloved West Coast brand

• Grow Kif significantly along the West Coast (CA, OR, WA) with distribution into natural grocers, independents, and co-ops
• Expansion into alternative channels: fitness studios, coffee shops, cafes, fast casual restaurants, corporate & college campuses, etc.
• Drive community-oriented awareness & engagement through our first brick & mortar location, ‘The Gut Hut by Kif,’ a curated walk-up shop selling Kif & other healthy sips & snacks within the hip, active neighborhood of Frogtown, Los Angeles

2027 & Beyond: National Expansion

• Kif available in various regions from coast to coast

Future projections are not guaranteed.

We’re bubbling over with opportunity, and with your investment, we’re ready to take Kif to the next level. Our funds will be strategically used to scale production, expand distribution, and amplify brand awareness—getting Nature’s Soda into more hands (and guts) nationwide.

Main areas where funds will be used, including but not limited to:

• Sales – supporting personnel to drive growth and market penetration 
• Marketing – growing brand awareness and customer engagement
• Working Capital – providing flexibility for transition to co-packing and scale
• Trade Spend – strengthening retail partnerships and fueling growth

We are raising $124k of this through Wefunder.

Kif’s mission is to nourish holistic health through nature. We bring this to life by crafting an all-natural, delicious & refreshing, potent probiotic drink, made only with real ingredients.

If you haven’t had a chance to try Kif yet, watch this video and get a taste of the world of Kif.

Every dollar moves us closer to making Kif a household name in the healthy soda revolution. Let’s build this future together—invest in Kif and help us bring Nature’s Soda to a fridge near you.