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Listen "The Journey Beyond Raising One Million Dollars | Agua Bonita CEO Kayla Castañeda"
Episode Synopsis
Bienvenidos, Moneda Moves listeners! Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about fundraising for companies. Because as we discuss the rise of new Latinx entrepreneurs, this kind of capital you can secure as a founder is just as important. It’s what helps a company scale and grow. But attaining this kind of capital and raising more than $1 million has not historically been a straightforward journey for entrepreneurs of color, and even less so for Latinas.
So today, we are sharing a story to help shed some light on the process and how the pandemic thrust former startup employees into the world of entrepreneurship. This is the story of Agua Bonita’s Co-Founder and CEO Kayla Castañeda, who broke fundraising records in 2021 while selling canned aguas frescas, a delicious fruit-derived drink popular in Mexico and Central America. Both she and her co-founder, Erin PonTell, arrived at entrepreneurship experienced in the beverage industry but also out without jobs after their employer startup closed mid-pandemic. As they so wittingly shared with Bustle: “We joke a lot — when life gives you lemons, make aguas frescas.”
Castañeda became one of two Latina co-founders who raised $2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round for their company. This happened just a year out from founding it and also made Castañeda the first Afro-Latina owned beverage brand to raise this amount.
Among the investors? Supply Change Capital, whose founder Noramay Cadena we interviewed in just our last episode of Moneda Moves. (And we suggest you listen to it!)
Our hope is that Agua Bonita is an example, but not the exception, to help many other Latina founders raise the capital needed to grow their business. Without further ado, here’s our interview with Kayla Castañeda, Co-Founder and CEO fo Agua Bonita.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a weekly digest of Latinx and money news: https://monedamoves.substack.com/
Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves
Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro
Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat.
Our music is from Epidemic Sound.
So today, we are sharing a story to help shed some light on the process and how the pandemic thrust former startup employees into the world of entrepreneurship. This is the story of Agua Bonita’s Co-Founder and CEO Kayla Castañeda, who broke fundraising records in 2021 while selling canned aguas frescas, a delicious fruit-derived drink popular in Mexico and Central America. Both she and her co-founder, Erin PonTell, arrived at entrepreneurship experienced in the beverage industry but also out without jobs after their employer startup closed mid-pandemic. As they so wittingly shared with Bustle: “We joke a lot — when life gives you lemons, make aguas frescas.”
Castañeda became one of two Latina co-founders who raised $2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round for their company. This happened just a year out from founding it and also made Castañeda the first Afro-Latina owned beverage brand to raise this amount.
Among the investors? Supply Change Capital, whose founder Noramay Cadena we interviewed in just our last episode of Moneda Moves. (And we suggest you listen to it!)
Our hope is that Agua Bonita is an example, but not the exception, to help many other Latina founders raise the capital needed to grow their business. Without further ado, here’s our interview with Kayla Castañeda, Co-Founder and CEO fo Agua Bonita.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a weekly digest of Latinx and money news: https://monedamoves.substack.com/
Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves
Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro
Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat.
Our music is from Epidemic Sound.
In God we trust