Cove Soda just popped the top on a $15M Series A led by Vanterra Ventures, and this one’s got more fizz than the cans they sell. The Halifax-born brand, founded by brothers John MacLellan and Ryan MacLellan, went from brewing kombucha in their mom’s kitchen in Malignant Cove to building one of the fastest-growing functional soda companies in North America. Their first 20 bottles sold out before lunch at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market back in 2016. Fast-forward to today, Cove’s on shelves at Costco, Target, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Sobeys, and Loblaws, racking up over 7,000 retail doors and a growth story that’s impossible to ignore.
Vanterra Ventures led the round, backed by RiverPark Ventures, The Palm Tree Crew, and Simple Food Ventures, with an all-star mix of believers including Diplo, Kygo, The Chainsmokers, Miles Teller, Michael Rubin, and Dan Lourenco. It’s not every day you see DJs, athletes, and entrepreneurs rally around a soda, but when the product’s this sharp, the crowd writes its own setlist. With this raise, Cove’s total funding climbs to ~$19.8M USD, a strong vote of confidence that zero sugar and zero BS is the future of fizz.
Cove’s line of probiotic sodas doesn’t just talk wellness, it delivers. Each can packs 1B CFUs of Bacillus subtilis DE111, 80% of your daily Vitamin C, and zero sugar, calories, or caffeine. Ryan MacLellan, the physicist-turned-Chief Innovation Officer, engineers flavor like it’s rocket science, Classic Cola, Dr. Cove, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Blue Razz, and seasonal drops like Cranmerry. John MacLellan, CPA-turned-CEO, runs the numbers and the narrative, keeping the operation tight and the trajectory cleaner than a quarterly audit.
Adding muscle to the mix, Joseph Lee stepped in as COO in March 2025 after leading operations at Liquid Death, GT’s Living Foods, and FIJI Water. Alongside Chief Revenue Officer René Leclerc, VP Finance Pat McAloon, and U.S. Biz Dev Director Kat Haddon, Cove’s leadership bench is built for scale. And with Vanterra’s Principal Ellis Fried joining the board, they’ve got a strategic partner who knows exactly how to turn functional brands into household names.
September 2025 brought another power move: a national distribution deal with Keurig Dr Pepper Canada. That partnership puts Cove on a fast track to every cooler from Vancouver to St. John’s. The timing’s perfect, the $250B carbonated soft drink market is ripe for disruption, and consumers are done sacrificing taste for health. Cove gives them both. As John MacLellan put it, Cove isn’t just riding a wave, it is the wave. The soda’s clean, the mission’s clear, and the growth curve’s about to look like a sugar rush without the crash.
