Kiwi founder disrupting the global hangover recovery market, one gummy at a time
After a manufacturer swindled him out of $60,000 in stock, Matthew Singleton’s revolutionary hangover gummy brand SoBear is now sold in more than 1,500 stores across New Zealand and Australia including in Liquourland, Chemist Warehouse and Super Liquour, with the bootstrapped founder eyeing 20,000 stores worldwide.
Anyone who has ever suffered from a big night out knows the drill. The throbbing head, the dry mouth, the creeping anxiety, and a Sunday quietly written off in a dark room. For decades, the standard advice has barely changed: drink water, dissolve an electrolyte tablet, and wait it out.
It was this tired playbook that convinced Kiwi digital marketer Matthew Singleton that the global wellness market was missing the mark entirely. By shifting the focus from simple hydration to hard-nosed liver science, his bootstrapped startup SoBear is quietly revolutionising how the world recovers, one chewy gummy at a time.
The problem, as Singleton saw it, ran deeper than what was on the shelf, though the shelf itself told part of the story. Pharmacies and supermarkets stocked few hangover cures beyond sugary electrolyte powders, effervescent tablets and oversized pills you have to fumble around with in the dark early hours of the morning. But while replenishing lost fluids is undeniably helpful, hydration alone fails to address the root toxic cause of hangover distress.
The science, Singleton explains, starts in the liver. When alcohol is consumed, the body metabolises it into acetaldehyde, an aggressive chemical by-product that accumulates in the liver and triggers the fatigue, nausea, and anxiety that follow a night of drinking.
To build a genuinely effective recovery solution, Singleton knew he needed to stop treating hangover symptoms and start targeting that underlying chemical process. The lightbulb moment arrived with dihydromyricetin, a natural plant compound he says supercharges the liver’s ability to break down and flush out acetaldehyde. Rather than producing another unpalatable powder or clunky capsule, he re-engineered the delivery mechanism entirely into a convenient, delicious gummy.
“Most products on the market are pills, sachets or powders that are time-consuming to mix or swallow at two in the morning when you’ve had a few beers,” Singleton explains. “We spotted a gap in the market to produce a hangover gummy that’s easy to take, flavoursome, and works really well.”
Testing the initial formulations on himself to solve his own hangovers, the concept quickly proved its worth, and what began as a personal quest soon revealed a sprawling market opportunity. Beyond traditional weekend partygoers, a growing cohort of health-conscious professionals and modern consumers were looking to maintain peak performance without sacrificing their social lives. Even after just two or three casual drinks, subtle cognitive brain fog can derail productivity the following day. By offering a science-led, hassle-free hangover solution, SoBear has positioned itself at the forefront of a rapidly accelerating global market, one Singleton says is projected to expand to $30 billion by 2030.
Yet, turning an innovative formulation into an international brand required sheer determination and personal grit. Choosing to bootstrap the business completely on his own capital rather than seeking early-stage venture backing, Singleton quickly learned how demanding consumer product manufacturing could be. Early in the venture, he suffered a devastating blow when an unvetted contract manufacturer scammed him out of $60,000, delivering a batch of product that contained zero active ingredients and consisted entirely of sugar lollies. With no way to recover the capital, Singleton was forced to destroy the entire shipment and fund a second $60,000 production run with a trusted manufacturing partner.
Instead of allowing the crippling financial loss to stall momentum, Singleton maintained a calm, pragmatic focus, treating the setback as an expensive operational lesson. He ironed out the supply chain, establishing high-grade manufacturing partnerships in Hong Kong and the United States to ensure absolute quality control. Applying his extensive background in digital customer acquisition, Singleton then built an agile marketing engine, supported by a flexible global creative team generating hundreds of ad variations weekly.
Establishing a powerful direct-to-consumer presence across New Zealand and Australia, the online buzz quickly caught the attention of mainstream retail buyers looking to capitalise on the emerging functional confectionery trend.
What began as an e-commerce brand swiftly evolved into a thriving omni-channel retail success story. Within just six months of expanding into physical stores, SoBear secured placements across 1,500 retail locations throughout Australasia. That explosive domestic momentum sparked rapid international expansion, with the brand securing distribution across 800 stores in South Africa, 400 in Bali, and 2,000 in Spain, alongside growing footprints in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and North America.
With a balanced multi-channel distribution strategy and a target of reaching 20,000 retail locations worldwide within two years, Singleton is proving that a bootstrapped enterprise from New Zealand can compete and win on the global stage. Despite the rapid international scale and long-term potential for a major strategic exit, his focus remains firmly anchored on the craft of building a meaningful, resilient brand from the ground up.
“When a business is bootstrapped by yourself, it’s demanding, but you want to put the work in because it’s your baby,” says Singleton. “You’re trying to grow something from nothing, and that gives you a genuine sense of fulfilment.”
Interview by Sam Collins
