Valedor Partners & Matthew Bronfman Join Seth MacFarlane as Investors in Bear Fight as the American Single Malt Whiskey Industry Booms
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA (May 2, 2023) – Bear Fight American Single Malt Whiskey, a craft whiskey brand under the Next Century Spirits portfolio, is pleased to announce the close of a $1.9 Million investment deal today between Valedor Partners and Matthew Bronfman. With the IWSR expecting the craft spirits market to nearly double by 2025 and 36% of its growth being driven by the U.S. craft whiskey category – Bear Fight is setting itself up for success. Prior to this year, Bear Fight started its soft launch in the spring of 2022 highlighting its multiple awards inclusive of its double gold accolade at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, its best-in-category award at the 2022 World Whiskey Competition, and its double gold medal at the 2021 New York International Spirits Competition. In the fall of 2022, the brand continued its soft launch announcing its partnership with Seth MacFarlane as an equity stakeholder and Chief Storyteller for Bear Fight. Today, the multi-hyphenate best known for creating the hit TV series Family Guy, American Dad!, The Orville, and the franchise Ted, will be joined by Valedor Partners and Matthew Bronfman as investors in Bear Fight Whiskey. The $1.9 Million investment led by Valedor Partners will go towards marketing efforts to maximize the brand’s overall visibility and awareness throughout the U.S. as the craft whiskey brand approaches its first official launch campaign. With the American Single Malt Whiskey industry exploding with opportunity and the craft spirits industry already seeing tremendous growth – Bear Fight is well-poised for prosperity as it creates a unique identity for itself in the category. The brand is excited to debut its official campaign launch with Seth MacFarlane later this year.
“Craft spirits’ rapid growth in the past decade points to a secular trend with today’s consumers who are actively seeking out innovative spirits categories and brands. While produced around the world, Single Malt Whiskey has only recently been defined as a category by U.S. regulators. We expect the American Single Malt will be a growth category not only in the U.S. but around the world. Supported by Seth MacFarlane’s unique voice and incredible talent, Bear Fight has the potential to disrupt this emerging category and have fun doing it. Valedor couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this growth story,” said Shawn Patterson (Managing Partner at Valedor).
“Being back in the alcohol business was always a personal goal for me, especially with my family ties to the industry,” said Matthew Bronfman (Chairman of Next Century Spirits whose grandfather was the founder of The Seagram Company). “I started investing in Next Century Spirits because of its visionary production process – with Bear Fight we can truly see the power of Next Century Spirits technology shine.”
“As an American-made craft whiskey brand, Bear Fight is in acceleration mode from a promotional and distributional lens,” said Anthony Moniello (Co-Chief Executive Officer at Next Century Spirits). “This new round of funding will allow us to bring Bear Fight to more consumers across the United States, while also allowing us to bring our brand story to life with our Chief Storyteller Seth MacFarlane.”
As a brand produced by Next Century Spirits, Bear Fight prides itself in blending traditional spirits-making methods with modern techniques to create an extraordinary whiskey, unlike anything currently in the marketplace. Bear Fight leverages Next Century Spirits’ optimized cask-finishing and filtration process which allows it to consistently create a flavor profile unique to Bear Fight by controlling the chaos inside the barrel at the molecular level. This process also allows Bear Fight – and other brands within the Next Century
Spirits portfolio – the ability to scale with consumer demand, while also making the finishing stage more sustainable. Bear Fight provides consumers with an approachable American Single Malt Whiskey with notes of candied pecans, ripe apples, sweet sherry, and a hint of Islay-style peat smoke that can be enjoyed neat, on the rocks, or in a cocktail.
Bear Fight is available in 27 states at an SRP of $39.99 and on ReserveBar.com and ForWhiskeyLovers.com. To learn more about this award-winning whiskey, please visit www.bearfightwhiskey.com or visit our social channels on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
About Valedor Partners
Valedor is a Houston-based venture capital and private equity firm with additional offices in the Bay Area and Washington, DC. Valedor’s principals apply their diverse skill sets and decades of experience as founders, investors, and C-level executives for the benefit of Valedor’s investors and portfolio companies.
Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane’s talents encompass every aspect of the entertainment industry. At 24, he became the youngest showrunner in television history when his animated series “Family Guy” aired on FOX. Renewed for its 22nd and 23rd seasons, the show has garnered MacFarlane five Emmys making him the tied record-holder for the most voice-over Emmy wins of all time. Most recently, MacFarlane premiered
“The Orville: New Horizons” on Hulu, the third season of his Emmy-nominated space adventure series he created, executive produces, and stars in. Up next for MacFarlane is Peacock’s anticipated “Ted” TV series premiering later this year. In addition to writing and directing all episodes, MacFarlane will reprise the voice of the iconic and loveable foul-mouthed teddy bear that broke box office records in 2012 when the TED film became the then-highest-grossing original R-rated comedy of all time. A multi-hyphenate at his core, MacFarlane is a five-time Grammy-nominated vocalist who has released seven studio albums, his most recent being Blue Skies, many of which have debuted to No. 1 on the iTunes Jazz Charts.
Bear Fight American Single Malt Whiskey
Bear Fight invites you to encounter the unexpected with this American Single Whiskey. Leveraging traditional Scotch-making methods and modern whiskey-making techniques, this fiercely original American Single Malt Whiskey allows you to celebrate the moments in life that give you the opportunity to forge a new path no matter the climb. Savor the moment of triumph and enjoy this award-winning whiskey responsibly.
Next Century Spirits
Next Century Spirits, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a full-service distilled spirits and marketing company. NCS specializes in the creation and process of distilled spirits for private label, bulk, and NCS-owned brands. Those owned brands have won numerous industry awards and the company was recognized as the 2021 North Carolina Distillery of the Year. Bear Fight American Single Malt Whiskey, an NCS-owned brand, is considered one the top American Whiskies in the world according to New York International Spirits Competition (NYISC) and won a Double Gold & Best in Category award which was cited in Forbes magazine. The expression also won Best in Category for a single malt under 12 years at the World Whiskies Awards. NCS products are available to ship to customers across the globe.
NCS Brand Group focuses on the marketing and distribution of its owned brands which includes Bear Fight American Single Malt Whiskey, Creek Water American Whiskey, and Caddy Clubhouse Cocktails.
To learn more about their services, please visit: https://nextcenturyspirits.com or check them out on Instagram or Facebook.