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Sanzo
Asian-inspired sparkling water
- 21-100 employees
- B2C
- Retail
- Food
- Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
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Company mission
To bridge cultures by connecting people to authentic flavors.
33% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
Sandro Roco, a Filipino American from Queens, realized that there was a disparity between the American and Asian-imported drinks brands. Where American brands had changed over the decades, embracing healthier and cleaner recipes, the legacy Asian brands he knew and loved were still layered with additives, preservatives and other less appealing ingredients. So he set out to bridge the two worlds - and so Sanzo was born.
Its aim is to offer a range of quality, authentic Asian flavors that are free from all those additives we no longer want in our drinks. The idea is to change and disrupt both the American and Asian drinks industries. So many American drinks offer the same uniform flavors, and the actual flavors Sanzo uses - lychee, mango, and calamnsi, fruits that are popular across Asia - are too often obscured by sugar and chemicals.
It taps into a number of zeitgeists within the food and drinks market - diversity of cultural flavors, healthy eating - and has launched brand-partnered drinks that have helped raise its profile, such as limited edition cans with artwork from Pixar’s Turning Red. With high profile investors too, like Marvel’s Simu Liu, it’s offering a fresh perspective within a legacy market.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Health benefits (including medical, dental & vision)
- 401(k) plan
- Paid time off
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jan 2024
$5m
EARLY VC
Feb 2022
$10m
SERIES A
Total funding: $16.4m
This company has top investors
Leadership
Sandro Roco
(CEO)Former Director of Strategic Initiatives at Bombfell, Associate at JP Morgan, and Systems Engineer at Exelon Nuclear. They also previously founded Dapp, and currently sit on the board of Naturally New York.