Startups & Funding
David Beckham's IM8 takes $1B from General Catalyst's revenue-based fund
IM8, the vitamin-drink startup co-founded with David Beckham, has taken on $1 billion in funding from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund, structured as a loan rather than an equity investment.
David Beckham’s startup IM8 has taken on $1 billion in funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), the company announced on Tuesday. CVF doesn’t make standard venture equity investments — it offers what are essentially loans with non-traditional repayment terms, under which startups repay the loan amount plus a fixed, capped percentage of the revenue they generate. As a result, General Catalyst isn’t buying stock and won’t hold an ownership stake in IM8, and the startup’s existing ownership won’t be diluted. As General Catalyst previously told TechCrunch, this structure suits startups with predictable revenue streams and a clear plan for how additional capital will accelerate their growth.
IM8 was co-founded by CEO Danny Yeung, a self-described high-school dropout who previously founded health company Prenetics, which went public in 2022. Yeung has said that path led him into circles where he ended up having dinner with David Beckham — a dinner that led to IM8, a subsidiary of Prenetics that sells a vitamin drink packed with compounds linked to longevity, ranging from açai fruit extract to Coenzyme Q10. Customers buy the drink through subscriptions.
The loan is structured to finance up to 70% of IM8’s customer acquisition costs. In return, General Catalyst receives a capped share of what it calls “reference income” — defined as the revenue generated from those customers multiplied by a fixed gross-margin assumption. Once General Catalyst has recovered its investment and hit its cap on the revenue share, all subsequent revenue from those customers flows back to Prenetics.
As TechCrunch has previously reported, Grammarly also took $1 billion from General Catalyst’s CVF in May 2025, shortly before it acquired Superhuman.
Why it matters
The deal shows General Catalyst extending its non-dilutive, revenue-linked financing model beyond software to consumer health brands with subscription revenue, giving founders growth capital without giving up equity or control.