Under the leadership of Fawn Weaver, the whiskey company, founded in 2016, pays tribute to Nathan “Nearest” Green, a once-enslaved individual who shared his whiskey-making expertise with Jack Daniel.
The company has achieved remarkable success in the spirits industry and can now be found in more than 30,000 stores, bars, hotels, and restaurants across 12 countries, as reported by Fortune. Additionally, the company proudly houses a 432-acre distillery in Shelbyville, TN, drawing in 200,000 visitors in 2023. Furthermore, their expansion includes an estate in Cognac, France, spanning over 100 acres with Charente River frontage and a unique island.
One key factor contributing to the company’s ongoing success is its adeptness in securing funding from individual backers. Weaver has proudly disclosed that the company has raised a total of $225 million through this avenue since its inception.
“I’ve never sent a pitch deck,” Weaver told Fortune. “It’s always been an investor in my company sharing with people in their network that, ‘Yeah, it’s risky as hell, but I’m willing to take that risk.’ Then they convince their peers who express interest in investing.”
Uncle Nearest has six investors that include Craig Leipold (majority owner of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild); Steve Mosko (CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group); and Jesse Burwell (chief financial officer of Liberty Strategic Capital).
Per Fortune, Uncle Nearest is now valued at $900 million.
In the future, Weaver’s aim is to fully acquire all her investors, firmly establishing her commitment to retaining ownership of the company without any plans of selling.
“I have first right of refusal on every investment in my company. And the only plan I have is to buy [all investors] out,” she explained to Fortune. “Every investor that comes in knows that the company has a very active secondary market.”
Weaver’s mission is to maintain Uncle Nearest as a Black-owned and Black-led company, embodying a commitment to diversity and representation in the spirits industry.
When talking about Black-owned consumer companies, we [Black people] have never held them in our 400 years in this country. And every single time we have sold, we sell to a white-owned company,” Weaver said. “…Rest assured that we’ll go into every spirit space that has room for growth.”
