Cirkul
- 🦄Became a unicorn~2022
- 📈Peak valuation$1 Billion ’22
- 💔Became a Unitard~2023
- 💸Last valuation~$650M
How it happened
Cirkul is a US direct-to-consumer beverage company selling water bottles with flavor cartridges, and was estimated to reach a ~$1B valuation around 2022. Amid a broader markdown of DTC startups, third-party estimates (PitchBook) cut its valuation by roughly a third, pushing it under the $1B unicorn mark. Glassdoor reviews suggest the reset reached staff in waves: employees described spending that swung from a Super Bowl ad to abrupt cuts — including, they said, the entire field-marketing team let go without notice days after the 2025 game — and recurring layoff rounds afterward that left staff with little visibility into how the company was performing.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Mutual-fund markdowns
2 funds · SEC NPORT-PHow U.S. mutual funds fair-value this still-private company in their quarterly SEC filings.
| Fund | Class | $/sh | From peak | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nomura Alternative Income Fund | $0.90 | -93% | Mar 2026 | |
| BlackRock Strategic Global Bond Fund, Inc. | $0.78 | -20% | Mar 2026 |
Source: SEC EDGAR Form NPORT-P (Level-3 fair-value marks). Per-share marks reflect the fund’s own valuation of a specific share class and aren’t a company-wide valuation. Last refreshed Jun 2026.
Source: PitchBook estimate, reported by CNBC (Jun 2026)
