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IM8, a premium health and longevity brand co-founded by David Beckham, has been endorsed by one of the best basketball players in the world: Miami Heat’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Now, the NBA is naming the fast-growing brand its official nutrition partner in Australia and Southeast Asia.
The NBA and IM8, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Prenetics Global Limited, a leading global health services company dedicated to advancing consumer health, announced on Monday its multi-year collaboration that makes the latter the official nutrition partner in Australia and eight markets across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
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Beckham and fellow IM8 co-founder Danny Yeung were alongside NBA executives and two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh in Hong Kong to make the announcement – one that continues to showcase the rapid growth of IM8 and how it’s impacting some of the most elite athletes and leagues around the globe.
Yeung took time out of his busy schedule to speak with Fox Business about this exciting partnership, but also about the journey IM8 has had to reach this point. Like many entrepreneurs, Yeung is constantly working on building his product, and as someone who “came from nothing,” seeing it reach new heights is pure joy.
“To be fair, the last three days in Singapore, I’ve given three talks, and I’m just having so much fun,” Yeung said over a video call, smiling ear to ear. “The opportunity I have to meet with amazing people, amazing entrepreneurs, amazing athletes like [F1 driver] Ollie Bearman. Monday, I was with David Beckham in Hong Kong. This weekend, I’m at F1 in the garage. It’s been a dream come true for me. As an immigrant kid going to the U.S. from nothing and someone that dropped out of high school at age 15 and my first job was a telemarketer – it’s been a dream.”
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Yeung, the co-founder and CEO of Prenetics, came to the U.S. from China when he was five years old. Though IM8 is the fastest-growing premium supplement brand ever recorded – over 50 million servings have been delivered to date – he remains extremely humble because of his upbringing.
But the grind to get to this point began at a young age.
“I started working at age 12 selling baseball cards,” he said. “…I just loved sports at a young age like a lot of people. To be able to be with these sports individuals, it’s just amazing. I came from nothing, so I always knew I wanted to create my own destiny, and I had to work really hard and make really good products and be very strategic about it, too. So, again, everything I believe in terms of IM8 has been a culmination of all my learnings from even as a teenager and all my past entrepreneurial experiences from the past 20-plus years.”
What exactly is IM8? The brand was built with an elite team of scientists spanning sports medicine, academia and space science – all focused on creating the best supplements that can fuel everyone, not just superstar athletes. It’s flagship product, Daily Ultimate Essentials, brings together 90 ingredients in a single sachet, all engineered to replace 16 different supplements in one drink, that is NSF Certified for Sport, non-GMO, vegan, free from common allergens and contains no artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners.
“The product itself, we have 90 ingredients clinically dosed – I think that’s key,” Yeung explained. “… We are a subscription-based business. So, if it doesn’t work, people aren’t going to continue to subscribe. Athletes, I can tell you, I have a plethora of athletes that are on the product, and we just can’t talk about it.”
If you were watching U.S. Open tennis this summer, Aryna Sabalenka, the back-to-back women’s singles champion, was repping the product and commercials were seen across TV screens and message boards in Flushing throughout the tournament. Yeung said it was Sabalenka who actually reached out about a partnership after taking the product for three months and loving the results – a testament to the exact mission IM8 set to to accomplish, especially when Beckham came into the mix.
“It’s been amazing and I feel very grateful he trusts me because three years ago, no one cares about Danny. If the product went wrong, it’s David’s name on it,” Yeung said. “He didn’t come on as an ambassador – he came on as a co-founder.
“To give David a lot of credit, when I met David, our market cap was $40 million. We went from $1 billion to a $40 million market cap. So, you know who your friends are when you go from $1 billion to $40 million, right? So, he could’ve easily said, ‘Oh s—, this is a sinking ship. I don’t want anything to do with Prenetics or Danny.’ But he chose to trust in us, and he’s been so amazing because number one – he loves the brand and the product. His parents take it. His bloodwork he tells me is the best. We’ve been able to grow from a $40 million market cap to almost half-a-billion right now in the last 18 months. That gives you his vision and insights.
“David said to me, ‘If we do this, Danny you have to promise me every product that we create has to be the best. Otherwise, I can’t put my name on it.’”
With Beckham on board, IM8 brought in the likes of Sabalenka, Antetokounmpo, Bearman, actress Lily Collins, podcaster and writer Jay Shetty and more global partners and ambassadors.
And now, the NBA, after doing its own vetting of the product, is in the mix.
“They studied all the ingredients, the results, the certifications and before any conversations took place, they made sure that they checked off every single ingredient and [certifications],” Yeung said. “Then, we had the conversation of, ‘Hey, how do we do this?’ and ‘Let’s start with Southeast Asia and Australia.’ That’s one of our fastest-growing markets as well.”
The future is certainly bright for this brand leading the charge in the supplements industry, and as Yeung is constantly working to improve and expand, IM8 has its eyes set on other industries as well, including hydration.
“It’s a huge category because Liquid IV does a billion-plus just in hydration, and I believe we have a better product than them in every fashion,” Yeung said, teasing a hydration product that will be coming soon. “We’re launching gummies in Q1, first half of the year in ’27. Again, we have a secret weapon when it comes to gummies. I can’t share too much now, but it’ll be like, ‘S—, you guys did it again.’”
