If you’ve been wondering who owns Alani, the short answer is Celsius Holdings Inc., the Nasdaq-listed beverage company that closed a $1.8 billion acquisition of the brand in 2025. That single deal reshaped the energy drink aisle almost overnight, taking a brand built by a fitness influencer and her husband and folding it into one of the fastest-growing players in the industry.
But the story behind that ownership change is worth unpacking, because it involves a founder-led startup, a manufacturing partner most shoppers have never heard of, and a public company now answering to Wall Street on Alani’s behalf.
Who Owns Alani Nu Right Now
Today, Alani Nu is a wholly owned subsidiary of Celsius Holdings. There’s no joint venture, no split ownership, and no lingering stake for the people who built the brand from scratch — the acquisition was a clean, complete purchase.
Since Celsius trades publicly under the ticker CELH, that also means Alani Nu’s ultimate owners are, technically, every shareholder who holds a piece of Celsius stock.
The deal closed in the second quarter of 2025 after clearing regulatory review and standard closing requirements. Alani Nu didn’t disappear into Celsius’s existing product lines, though.
It continues to operate as its own brand, sitting alongside Celsius’s flagship energy drink and the more recently acquired Rockstar Energy label, giving the parent company three distinct brands aimed at different types of drinkers.
The Couple Who Built Alani From the Ground Up
Before Celsius ever entered the picture, Alani Nu belonged to its co-founders: Katy Hearn Schneider and her husband, Haydn Schneider. Katy came into the venture with a fitness and social media background, and she used that platform to build a brand explicitly designed around how women wanted to feel — not just another energy drink chasing a generic customer base.
That focus turned into one of the defining traits of the brand, which built a social media following that skewed roughly 92% female.
Haydn brought a different set of skills to the partnership, helping steer the business side as the two scaled what started as a niche supplement idea into a company valued in the billions within about seven years. Their timeline moved fast by any standard, and a big part of that speed came down to who they chose to partner with early on.
Congo Brands: The Manufacturing Partner Most People Never Noticed
Behind Alani Nu’s rapid national rollout was Congo Brands, a Louisville-based company founded in 2014 by Max Clemons and Trey Steiger. Congo Brands operated as both a white-label manufacturer and an investment holding firm, and it held majority ownership of Alani Nu well before Celsius ever made an offer.
That arrangement gave Alani Nu access to supply chain infrastructure, production capacity, and capital that would have been difficult for a founder-led startup to build alone.
Congo Brands used the same playbook with other breakout beverage brands, including Prime Drink, making it something of a quiet powerhouse in the functional drinks space even though its name rarely appeared on a can.
Breaking Down the $1.8 Billion Celsius Acquisition
Celsius structured the purchase in a way that mixed cash, stock, and future incentives rather than paying everything upfront in a single lump sum. Here’s how the total consideration broke down:
- Cash payment: $1.275 billion (roughly 71% of the deal)
- Celsius stock: $500 million, or about 22.5 million shares (roughly 28% of the deal)
- Potential earn-out: up to $25 million tied to future performance (about 1% of the deal)
- Tax assets: an additional $150 million factored into the overall value
That stock component is worth pausing on, since it represents close to 8.7% pro-forma ownership of Celsius Holdings for the former Alani Nu owners. Those shares aren’t fully liquid right away, either — they’re locked up, with releases staggered over a two-year period, which keeps the sellers financially tied to how well the combined company performs going forward.
To help fund the cash portion, Celsius leaned on debt financing arranged through UBS Investment Bank, which put together a $900 million Term Loan B along with a $100 million revolving credit facility. The remaining cash came out of Celsius’s own reserves, and despite taking on new debt, the company kept its pro-forma net leverage around a conservative 1.0x.
What Alani Nu Brings to Celsius’s Bottom Line
Celsius didn’t buy Alani Nu out of curiosity — the numbers made a strong case on their own. In 2024, Alani Nu pulled in $595 million in annual revenue, backed by 78% year-over-year retail sales growth, a pace few brands in any category manage to sustain.
The brand also generated $137 million in EBITDA and held a 4.8% dollar share of the U.S. energy drink market heading into the acquisition.
Combined, Celsius and Alani Nu now control an estimated 16% of the energy drink category, putting the pairing behind only Red Bull (25%) and Monster Energy (22%) as the third-largest company in the space.
Projections for the combined platform point toward roughly $2 billion in annual sales, split across two brands built for noticeably different audiences — one rooted in fitness culture, the other built specifically around female consumers.
Who’s Steering the Ship: Leadership and the Board
With the acquisition complete, Alani Nu now falls under the governance of Celsius Holdings’ board of directors rather than any standalone leadership team. At the top sits John Fieldly, who has served as CEO since April 2018 and added the Chairman title in August 2021.
Fieldly is the executive most directly responsible for overseeing Alani Nu’s integration, and he personally holds around 0.4% of Celsius shares, an equity stake worth roughly $44 million.
To keep the transition smooth, Congo Brands’ leadership agreed to stay on in advisory roles under transition services agreements, rather than exiting the business the moment the deal closed.
The board itself brings together a mix of backgrounds beyond Fieldly — finance leaders with automotive and CPG experience, human resources veterans, and longtime shareholder representatives — giving Celsius a broader governance base as it manages three energy drink brands instead of one.
Where PepsiCo Fits Into the Picture
PepsiCo isn’t just a distribution partner for Celsius — it’s also become a meaningful shareholder. In August 2025, PepsiCo increased its stake in Celsius Holdings to roughly 11% on an as-converted basis, buying $585 million in newly issued convertible preferred stock.
Two PepsiCo executives, Michael Del Pozzo and Israel Kontorovsky, also sit on the Celsius board, giving the beverage giant a direct line into how the combined company, including Alani Nu, is run.
That relationship matters beyond the boardroom, too. PepsiCo already leads distribution for the Celsius portfolio across the U.S. and Canada, and that infrastructure now extends to Alani Nu, giving the brand a much wider shelf presence than it likely could have achieved on its own.
The Bottom Line on Alani’s Ownership
So who owns Alani? As of 2025, it’s Celsius Holdings, full stop — a public company answerable to its shareholders rather than a founder-led startup answerable to its own vision. Katy and Haydn Schneider, along with Congo Brands’ Max Clemons and Trey Steiger, walked away with a combination of cash, stock, and a two-year lock-up tying them to Celsius’s future performance.
For a brand that started with one couple trying to build something women could feel good about drinking, it’s a long way from where it began — and a clear sign of how quickly a well-positioned startup can become a multi-billion-dollar acquisition target.
FAQs
Who owns Alani Nu today?
Celsius Holdings Inc. owns Alani Nu as a wholly owned subsidiary, following a $1.8 billion acquisition completed in 2025.
Who originally founded Alani Nu?
Katy Hearn Schneider and Haydn Schneider founded Alani Nu in 2018, partnering with Congo Brands for manufacturing and distribution support.
How much did Celsius pay for Alani Nu?
Celsius paid $1.8 billion total, including $1.275 billion cash, $500 million in stock, and up to $25 million in a potential earn-out.
Did Congo Brands sell its stake in Alani Nu?
Yes, Congo Brands co-founders Max Clemons and Trey Steiger divested their majority ownership as part of the 2025 acquisition.
Can investors buy Alani Nu stock directly?
No, Alani Nu isn’t independently traded; investors can only gain exposure through Celsius Holdings stock (Nasdaq: CELH).
