The round was led by Accomplice, with participation from Golden Ventures and Bling Capital.
“CloudCellar” allows users to buy up to 500 bottles of wine a now and ship them later. Consumers’ wine collection can be managed virtually, with users taking physical possession at any time by selecting specific bottles and having them delivered on-demand with free shipping.
Leveraging its proprietary AI models and data engines, customers receive variable upgrades with premium wines worth at least the same or more than they paid, with rare bottle upgrades often worth up to $10,000being awarded every day.
“People don’t actually want the lowest price or biggest discount when they buy a bottle of wine, what they actually want is the greatest value,” says Jeffrey Shaw, Underground Cellar’s Founder & CEO. “After seeing the harm that discounts were causing to wine brands I knew that the solution would be to drive excitement by upgrading customers’ purchases to more expensive, rare, and large-format bottles.”
To further integrate the technology-first wine platform, successful tech start-up leader and former Google executive, Jeff Hardy joins the team as COO and takes a seat on the board.
“This new infusion of capital will allow us to enhance our unique gamified platform, further deepen our relationships with the world’s most coveted and prestigious wineries, and unlocks our ability to triple the size of our team by the end of the year,” says Jeff Hardy, Underground Cellar COO.