David Beckham’s health drink startup IM8 takes $1B from General Catalyst’s unusual CVF fund

IM8, the health drink startup co-founded by David Beckham, has successfully raised $1 billion in funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), as announced on Tuesday. Unlike conventional venture capital investments, CVF provides funding in the form of loans that come with unconventional repayment structures. The repayment model for CVF allows startups to repay the loan alongside a fixed, capped percentage of their revenue, meaning General Catalyst will not acquire equity or ownership stakes in IM8. This approach ensures that the startup's ownership remains intact, a crucial factor for founders looking to maintain control. Danny Yeung, CEO of IM8, previously founded Prenetics, a health company that went public in 2022. Yeung's journey from high-school dropout to entrepreneur led him to influential social circles, where a dinner with Beckham sparked the idea for IM8. The company focuses on selling a vitamin drink infused with various longevity-promoting ingredients, including açai fruit extract and Coenzyme Q10, through a subscription model. The funding will cover up to 70% of IM8’s customer acquisition costs. In return, General Catalyst is set to receive a capped share of what it describes as “reference income,” calculated from the revenue generated by IM8’s customers multiplied by a fixed gross-margin assumption. Once General Catalyst has recouped its investment and reached its revenue cap, all future income from those customers will revert to Prenetics. Notably, this is not the first time GC’s CVF has made headlines; Grammarly previously secured a similar $1 billion investment from the fund in May 2025, just ahead of its acquisition of Superhuman.