After years of working in law, Mark Curry noticed a need for a more calming and healthy alternative to energy drinks to keep busy people awake.
This was how his business, Savvy Beverages, turned from a personal project to a booming business.
Savvy Beverages specialises in nootropic beverages, which are a kind of functional drink filled with vitamins and superfoods to boost brain function, boost productivity and improve mental clarity without the crash of traditional energy drinks.
A booming industry
When he first started, Curry says Savvy Beverages was the only product of its kind in Australia. The nootropics trend was already gaining traction in the U.S. in Silicon Valley in 2016.
“When I used to pitch in 2018 and 19, the thing I was talking about in terms of the functional food and beverage space was quite small as opposed to now,” he tells Azzet.
“Now, things have blown up dramatically.”
The global functional beverage market size was valued at US$175.5 billion in 2022 and expected to reach $339.6 billion in 2030.
In Australia alone, the industry was worth around $17 billion in 2023 and expected to rise to $34.7 billion by 2030.
While many people still aren’t aware of nootropics, Curry says it is an industry that is likely to continue growing alongside the functional food and beverage industry.
“It's still quite new, where if you say the word nootropic to people, a lot of people still don't know what that word means,” he says.
“But the tide’s turning more toward the interest in mental health and nootropics.
“I believe it's just getting larger and larger and larger, and statistically, it's been growing at an outrageously fast pace of around 13.4% year on year, growth in the functional food and functional beverage space as a whole.”
The functional beverage industry is led by energy drinks, like Red Bull or V, which hold a 39% share in the industry.
Curry says the main way Savvy stands out in an ever-growing industry is by listening and staying ahead of the curve.
“We grow with what people are looking for in products,” he says.
Curry says an example of this was creating a calming range in 2021, before it became a top trend in 2024.
“2024 was the first year large data giants reported that mental health and people looking to be calmer were the most important things customers were looking for,” he says.
“Normally, it's dominated by energising style, things, people who just want to get things done all day.”
Curry also says the amount of quality ingredients in Savvy Beverage’s products sets them apart from the competition.
“We also separate ourselves by the level of ingredients, and the dose that we put in our website right now says savvy nutrition works with 25 times more ingredients than any other on the market at minimum,” he says.
“We link to the science, and it's based on 512 clinical studies.”
A growing business
At the start, Curry didn’t have much money to start the business, so he got creative with what he had.
“I had negative negative A$13,000 when I first started, which isn’t an ideal place to start a business,” he says.
“Normally, you want to have a bit of cash and some investors.
“I was just a guy with a law degree starting a new age nutrition company based around neuroscience.”
This led to him driving around his Honda Jazz with his first batch of around 11,000 drinks and delivering them to connections he found on Facebook and LinkedIn.
His first batch eventually sold out, leading him to hone his skills and create an even better second batch.
While it took him around 18 months to develop his first batch, Curry says others starting a business shouldn’t be afraid to fail.
“I probably took a lot longer than I needed to at the beginning, because I had a lot of issues and self-doubt in regards to imposter syndrome,” he says.
Now, 10 years later, the company has almost 20 products and over 1000 different stockists across Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore.
The company has also grown to have loyal customers and is still sticking to its roots of frequently delivering to large law firms, technology companies, banking institutions and accounting firms.
“It’s great that we serve directly into all of those different places, as well as having a lot of customers that we service ourselves through online subscriptions and repeat orders,” Curry says.
Curry also says he now has a whole team behind him to keep the company running smoothly.
“We now have warehouses that do all that. We have a variety of manufacturers all over Australia,” he says.
“I have a bunch of people who help with marketing decisions, with emails and with social media and all the kind of bits and pieces required just to stay relevant in today's world.”
One of the ways the company markets itself is through awards. In 2025 alone, Savvy Beverages made it to the top six of three categories at the Telstra Business Awards.
“I didn’t have all the money in the world for campaigns when we first started, so we entered awards where people judged you on the merit of the product,” Curry says.
“Even in the early days when we only had a few under our belt, it showcased that we were different because it proved that our product works.”
