Owner of Untappd, Beer Advocate acquires direct-to-consumer sales platform (the former CraftCellr)

Software provider Next Glass is expanding its alcohol empire, this week announcing the acquisition of craft beverage technology solution, Oznr, formerly known as CraftCellr. Oznr partners with craft beverage producers and retailers to manage the day-to-day operations for to-go sales, memberships, can/bottle release pre-sales, and random draws for high demand releases.

Brands already under the Next Glass umbrella, such as Untappd and BeerAdvocate, will start to leverage Oznr’s direct-to-consumer technology for the craft beverage industry. Next Glass will invest in team and product expansions to support the continued evolution of Oznr’s industry leading solution.

Oznr was founded in 2017 by Eric Thelen, Dharmesh Patel, and Colin Gray with the goal of creating a leading direct-to-consumer software system that successfully connected breweries and consumers through a mobile marketplace. The Oznr platform allows breweries to alert beer enthusiasts of upcoming craft beer releases for pre-orders and creates a seamless process for managing taproom releases and memberships.

“The connection between brewers and the beer enthusiasts supporting them is the very soul of our industry. Through this acquisition, we’ll be able to deliver a service to our Untappd and BeerAdvocate communities they’ve been requesting for years,” said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass. “Beyond the great product, in Oznr’s founding team, we’re adding individuals who are passionate about this industry to our company, which was an important consideration during our discussions.”

Untappd for Business serves nearly 4,000 breweries globally with menu publishing software. Virtually every U.S. brewery and nearly 12,500 international breweries maintain their Untappd brewery pages. With integrations between Oznr and the Untappd and BeerAdvocate platforms, brewers will be able to connect directly with consumers to share special bottle releases and attract new enthusiasts to their membership programs. These integrations are a key component of the Next Glass mission to advance the global beverage industry through innovative technology.

“Since the inception of the platform our goal has been to help breweries engage with their consumers in a meaningful way. That goal aligns perfectly with the mission of Next Glass, and it’s for that reason that
we are so excited to join this team,” said Eric Thelen, CEO of Oznr. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with the industry leading experts that make up the Next Glass family to take Oznr to the next level.”