Increasingly, people are no longer seeking the quickest, easiest route to 'get in shape' - but instead are becoming invested in creating a healthy balanced lifestyle. The rising number of active members at gyms and the surging popularity of fitness brands such as CrossFit® are a testament to this trend. As a result, according to Global Industry Analysts, Inc., sports and fitness nutrition foods and drinks markets are projected to reach $55B by 2018.

The sugary, artificial sports drinks of yesterday aren't going to cut it for today's health-conscious consumer. Amara is a revolutionary blend of raw fruit and all 5 vital electrolytes that is not only delicious and nutritious but powerful. Our proprietary blend and production process have allowed us to create the world's first raw, unpasteurized, all-natural sports drink.

Today's fitness-conscious consumer walks or bikes to work, goes to yoga instead of brunch on Sundays and is addicted to the intensity of cross-training programs like CrossFit®. As a result, consumption of fitness drinks has become an everyday occurrence, no longer reserved for professional athletes but considered to be a healthful and refreshing beverage option regardless of athleticism. However, conventional sports drinks like Gatorade are pumped full of artificial ingredients and extremely high levels of sugar, and therefore completely at odds with the dietary needs of today's athletes.

And yet there were no raw sports drinks on the market - until Amara.

Our unique blend of Maqui Berry, CoffeeBerry® and raw organic agave nectar is brimming with vitamins and antioxidants, as well as caffeine from the CoffeeBerry® to keep you energized for the duration of your workout. We utilize a unique raw foods bottling system developed specifically to protect the inherent nutrients and enzymes of our carefully-sourced ingredients and create a raw sports drink unlike any other.

Amara is a low Calorie, low sugar, nutrient-dense alternative to mainstream sports drinks - and is quickly becoming a regional phenomenon.

When we were rebuilding the sports drink from the ground up, we wanted to rethink everything including: the packaging, design, and processing. In partnership with 7UP Bottling we have built a first-of-its-kind bottle that allows us to bottle Amara raw with a 12 month ambient temperature shelf life and keep it carbonated. We had to make significant changes to the bottle structure, use a customized 'Double Lock' closure and cap with dual threads and retool the bottling lines. All of this allows us to bring consumers a better tasting, more nutrient dense sports drink that is completely unprocessed.

These new bottle technologies and production capabilities are protected by intellectual property rights and trade dress intellectual property rights on the bottle shape, adding to the substantial competitive advantages mentioned below.

As the first raw, all-natural fitness drink, Amara has an obvious edge over the competition. With representation at Whole Foods, Sprouts, fitness centers and clubs on the West coast we are seeing exponential sales growth. We owe a large part of this burgeoning success to two key factors: our partnership with 7UP Bottling and our exclusive rights to sell CoffeeBerry® drinks in gyms and natural foods stores.

Amara enjoys a mutually productive partnership with 7UP Bottling. Sparked by the fact that 7UP Bottling is the only bottler in the US that has almost all of the equipment needed to process Amara's new raw drink with Amara owning the remaining parts, this relationship has the capacity to ramp production to the level of a national brand. In fact, 7UP Bottling runs millions of cases a year out of the very facility where Amara is blended and packaged. Their size and capacity allow us to produce Amara drinks as inexpensively and efficiently as we possibly can. An added bonus of working with 7UP Bottling is that, due to their unique equipment, we were able to inexpensively develop the first ever sports drink bottle mentioned above capable of withstanding carbonation pressure on a cold fill line. This was essential in creating the first raw fitness drink, allowing us to bypass the pasteurization process used by most bottlers. In pasteurization, drinks are heated to at least 165 degrees for 10 minutes, guaranteeing the safety of the food but also breaking down a large share of the nutrients and robbing it of its full flavor. We have utilized an age-old innovation from the wine industry that uses an organic microbial process to ensure Amara's safety - and 12 month shelf life - while keeping the nutrients intact and our beverage as flavorful as possible.

We are also corporate partners with Futureceuticals, Inc., the company that has intellectual property to the CoffeeBerry® process and the trademark name CoffeeBerry®. This gives us the early mover advantage and makes us well-positioned to benefit from the drink's growing popularity and acceptance amongst large chains. CoffeeBerry® is the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean, and has previously been discarded and used for compost. Luckily, we were among the first to discover that CoffeeBerry® is delicious, rich in antioxidants and caffeinated! The novelty of this superfruit is more than a little ironic: in fact, there are thousands of 10ft x 10ft pictures of CoffeeBerry® plastered on Starbucks walls globally - people simply don't realize what they're seeing.

Amara is an official partner of the CrossFit® Games. Our passionate, athletic team has thousands of CrossFit® devotees, making our partnership a natural fit. Additionally, Amara's delicious formula aligns with the Paleo diet favored by many of CrossFit's® health-conscious fans. The Paleo diet is based on the idea that humans' genetics and dietary needs have not changed significantly since the Paleolithic era over 10,000 years ago - before the dawn of agriculture brought complex foods such as grains, dairy and most importantly refined sugar. Amara is created using the same raw ingredients Paleolithic man would have eaten - and is therefore designed to power our bodies naturally.

Amara is currently carried by Whole Foods stores throughout California. This has offered us incredible insight into our product's viability, as they are able to provide us with real-time metrics. In the last few months alone, sales of Amara have grown 280%! We have also secured agreements with nearly 300 Sprouts locations, and we are in the process of expanding our production and distribution capabilities in order to meet this rising demand.

Our aim at Amara goes so much further than just providing an all-natural, raw, nutritious fitness drink to the masses. We want to help America rebuild our nutritional foundation and, as such, we have very strong beliefs about how our product is made.

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Looking to the future we are highly optimistic about Amara's growth as a premium fitness drink. Our exclusive partnerships have positioned us to become a recognized brand in gyms and the natural channel nationwide.

Here at Amara, passion is a prerequisite. We all love our product and have a thirst for ensuring that everyone else loves it too. Our team is made up of a number of individuals with strong backgrounds in start-ups, nutrition and sales.

Greg Connolly, Founder / CEO

Greg has an impressive background, having founded multiple companies. He has over a decade of start-up experience and has used his wealth of experience to realize his passion of helping people to enjoy their active lifestyles through the founding of Amara Beverage Co. Greg is also a contributing author for Entrepreneur Media, the publishers of Entrepreneur Magazine. Greg has previously managed sales at SmartTurn, generating $4.5m in annual sales. He also has significant experience in marketing and accounting.

Joe Siler, Co-Founder / Sales Manager

Joe has dual degrees in Accounting and Biology from the University of Notre Dame and Concordia University respectively. Joe brings a unique blend of science and business knowledge to the team and a passion for health, fitness and nutrition makes him a valued addition to the Amara team.

Joey Altobelli, Marketing Director

Joey has over 10 years of experience building brands from companies as diverse as Hurley to companies in our fitness space like Progenex. Joey's track record is strong having developed multiple clothing lines, gorgeous brand designs, spearheading popular trends and developing brand architectures. Joey also owns CrossFit Intersect, the largest and most popular CrossFit gym in Long Beach, CA and has competed at the Regional level.

Jasson Pierre, Media Director

Jasson develops and delivers most of the media, social media, graphics and rich content for Amara. He is an experienced cinematographer, producer, director and has a BA from the Academy of Arts in San Francisco in Motion Graphics. His creative design can be seen throughout the Amara brand experience. Jasson has also had a long history in the fitness industry as a personal trainer while he was in college and now as a CrossFit athlete. 

Kiah Connolly, M.D., Managing Director / Health Advisor

Kiah Connolly is an Emergency Physician at UC Irvine Medical Center. She received her Medical Degree from the University of California at Irvine. As Greg's wife, Kiah has been involved in Amara since it's inception and provides nutrition and ingredient guidance for our R&D team along with our beverages sugar and calorie profiles. Kiah has also had a lifelong passion for fitness and clean eating and has worked very closely with Greg to develop the vision for Amara and it's macrosociological impacts on the American diet.