Brewery, Winery & Distillery Software — Production, Excise Reporting, Wholesale and Tasting-Room Sales
The buyer population — Beverage manufacturing
Base industry report for 3121 →- Establishments · CanadaA
- 1,862
- Under 10 employeesA
- 46%
- Establishments · USA
- 12,240
- Employment · USA
- 268,737
- Payroll · USA
- $14.9B
Of 1,862 Canadian establishments with employees, 46% have fewer than ten — weighted toward mid-sized establishments. Each of those is one potential account, before any filter for size or fit.
Entry signal — what decides who wins here
One thing must be trueEntry turns on a single condition that can be named and tested before much is spent. Clear it and this becomes an execution question; fail it and no amount of operating skill helps.
Widen the definition, or stack this niche with others. The prize as drawn will not carry a business on its own; it may still be worth owning as one line of several.
Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.
This is not a probability of success, and it is not a verdict on you. No survival probability is published per market, and inventing one would be worse than saying so. What the bar reads is how much of the outcome sits inside an operator's control: green means the hurdles are ones a better operator clears, red means the binding constraint is capital, an asset or a permission rather than execution. Someone arriving with an advantage this screen did not assume can win a market shown in red.
Companies named in this market · 18
The binding constraint — market size
The buyer pool is small, shrinking at the brewery end, and has already been sold to three consolidators — so an entrant would be fighting owners with payment and distribution networks for a few thousand customers. TTB's own count of brewery permits that filed an operational report fell from 8,199 (2022) to 7,888 (2024) and 7,228 (2025, before late filings); in 2025, 4,781 of them made 1,000 barrels or less and 1,040 made nothing at all [A]. Distilled-spirits permits are still rising (4,036 at the start of 2022, 5,069 at the end of 2024) [A], but they are the smallest pool. In Canada the whole beverage-manufacturing group is 1,862 establishments, 859 of them with fewer than ten employees (per the 3121 operating record) [A]. The vendors have consolidated around those buyers. Brewery and distillery production belongs to Ekos — bought by Next Glass (Untappd, Untappd for Business, Ollie; backed by PSG) in October 2025, with 1,200+ active producers and a two-year price freeze for existing customers [B]. Winery direct-to-consumer (ecommerce, POS, wine clubs, reservations) belongs to Commerce7, a British Columbia corporation owned by Fullsteam, which bought WineDirect's SaaS division in January 2025, VineSpring in 2022 and WinePulse in 2025, and says 3,500+ wineries use it [B/C]. Winery production is split between InnoVint and vintrace — and vintrace now sits inside Encompass Technologies, which VIP (the beverage-distributor software house Warburg Pincus agreed to buy for about $1B in February 2025) acquired on 14 September 2026 [B]; OrchestratedBEER's old domains now redirect to Encompass too [C]. The compliance work is real but it is a feature, not a moat an entrant can own: US producers file the Brewer's Report of Operations (TTB F 5130.9, or quarterly 5130.26), the Report of Wine Premises Operations (5120.17), the distilled-spirits monthly production, storage and processing reports (5110.40, 5110.11, 5110.28) and the excise return (5000.24) [A]; in Canada the CRA levies beer duty per hectolitre under the Excise Act and spirits and wine duty under the Excise Act, 2001, with the reduced rates on a domestic brewer's first 15,000 hL cut in half and the annual CPI adjustment capped at 2% for two more years by Bill C-30 (royal assent 18 June 2026) [A]. Every incumbent already generates these. How this differs from its neighbours: 3121 Craft Beverage Production is the operating business (taps, shelf listings, excise as a cost); this record is the software that business buys. 722511 Restaurant Operations Software is Toast's market — it meets this one only at the taproom POS, where Arryved sells against Toast and Square. 3241 Process Manufacturing is refinery-scale simulation; the national brewers in Canada run enterprise ERP and are not buyers of anything here. Market size decides it: a few thousand mostly sub-1,000-barrel producers, already captured by owners who earn on payments (Fullsteam, Next Glass PaySmart) and distribution data (VIP).
Sectors joined: Beverage · Beverage SaaS · Non-alc Beverages · Beverages
[UNVERIFIED] Sector-to-NAICS mapping is analyst judgment — see data/angel-sector-map.json. Counts are a per-record cross-reference and are not additive across records.
The incumbent
Who owns this market and who is coming for it. Fields a screen never reached say so rather than guessing.
Financials & market size — sourced
Figures that came from a filing, a results release or reputable reporting, each carrying its evidence tier.
The field
Every vendor named on this record, and what each one discloses. Most disclose nothing, which is why the market is not sized.
Competitor set · 14 named · 0 disclose revenue
| Name | Revenue | Share | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| EkosB | not disclosed | — | Private; acquired by Next Glass (Oct 2025), terms not disclosed. Previously raised an $8M Series A (2019, led by Noro-Moseley Partners) and a $21M Series B (2021) — Charlotte, NC; founded 2014. Production, inventory, order hub, keg tracking and TTB reporting for breweries, distilleries, cideries and wineries; 1,200+ active producers |
| Next GlassB | not disclosed | — | Private; PSG-backed per coverage — Owns Untappd (2015), Untappd for Business (2016), Ollie (2021), Oznr, Hop Culture and Ekos (2025); launched PaySmart in 2026 — the consumer check-in app, the taproom menu and the production system under one owner |
| Commerce7B | not disclosed | — | Private; owned by Fullsteam — British Columbia corporation (Vancouver-datelined releases). Winery POS, clubs, ecommerce, reservations, CRM; bought VineSpring (2022), WineDirect's SaaS division (signed 16 Jan 2025) and WinePulse (Sept 2025). 3,500+ wineries per its homepage [C] |
| WineDirectB | not disclosed | — | SaaS division sold to Fullsteam/Commerce7 in January 2025, terms not disclosed; winedirect.com now carries a Commerce7 Platform Inc. footer — The long-time winery DTC platform; WineDirect Fulfillment stayed separate and became Commerce7's preferred fulfillment partner. 35 staff moved to Commerce7 |
| vintraceB | not disclosed | — | Acquired by Encompass Technologies (2022), which VIP acquired on 14 Sept 2026; terms not disclosed — Cloud winery production software (trade name of VINX2 Winery Software Inc., San Francisco at sale); 670+ wineries in 2022; vintrace.com now redirects to encompasstech.com/vintrace; added eVineyard in 2025 |
| Encompass TechnologiesB | not disclosed | — | Acquired by VIP, completed 14 Sept 2026; terms not disclosed — Fort Collins beverage ERP for distributors and producers; homepage sells 'grain-to-glass production, accounting, and compliance' for breweries, distilleries and cideries. OrchestratedBEER's old domains redirect here [C] |
| VIP (Vermont Information Processing)B | not disclosed | — | Private; Warburg Pincus agreed to acquire it at about $1B including debt (Feb 2025, per PYMNTS citing Reuters) — Colchester, VT software house for beverage distributors and suppliers; now owns Encompass and vintrace — the distributor-data layer reaching into producer production |
| InnoVintC | not disclosed | — | Private; no funding round found — Winery production 'operating system' founded 2013; the main independent alternative to vintrace |
| OrchestratedBEERC | not disclosed | — | Orchestra Software (Portland, OR) raised $14M growth equity from Radian Capital in Jan 2019; current owner unconfirmed — Brewery/distillery ERP on SAP Business One; 350+ craft breweries, distilleries and cideries in 2019 [B]. orchestrasoftware.com and orchestratedbeer.com now redirect to Encompass — an acquisition is implied but no announcement was found |
| BrewwC | not disclosed | — | Private (Breww Ltd, England and Wales); no funding found — Harpenden, UK brewery management (production, sales, deliveries, duty returns); 800+ breweries in 35+ countries per its homepage |
| ArryvedB | not disclosed | — | Private; $5M Series A (2019) [B]; a $20M 2021 round led by Tribe Capital and Foundry Group was reported but the article could not be opened — Boulder taproom POS and operations platform for breweries — where restaurant POS (Toast, Square) competes |
| OrderPortC | not disclosed | — | Private; owned by Performant Capital per its About page — Bellevue, WA winery DTC suite (tasting room, clubs, ecommerce), founded 2002; 1,000+ winery locations |
| VinoshipperC | not disclosed | — | Private — Direct sales and compliance platform (store, POS, clubs, shipping compliance, wholesale) for wine, cider, mead and spirits; 3,000+ businesses |
| Sovos ShipCompliantC | not disclosed | — | Inside Sovos (private); not broken out — DTC shipping compliance, state product registration and three-tier reporting for 2,000+ wineries, breweries and distilleries — sits beside, not instead of, production software |
Nobody here publishes revenue. The market is not sized for that reason — an estimate built on nothing would only look like knowledge.
Startups & challengers
Newer and smaller vendors going at the incumbent — funded challengers first. Named, not researched to the depth of the field above; a company with a page here links to it.
| Company | Stage | What it does | Raised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activ8 Commerce | Scrappy competitor | Pleasanton, CA multi-channel sales system (POS, clubs, ecommerce) for wineries, distilleries and breweries | — |
| Beer30 | Scrappy competitor | Brewery ERP named by The 5th Ingredient (San Diego) in search listings; beer30.com served an empty page — unverified | — |
| Brewer's Friend | Scrappy competitor | Homebrew recipe and brew-day software (Brewer's Friend, Inc.) — a hobby product, not a commercial production or excise system | — |
| Whiskey Systems | Scrappy competitor | Craft-distillery production tracking and TTB reporting marketed to US and Canadian distillers; whiskeysystems.com returned 'site is not available' | — |
Evidence
Evidence. Sourced 2026-10-20 by direct retrieval. Tier A: TTB 'Number of Brewers by Production Size' (JSON, report dated 3 June 2026; definitions cite TTB F 5130.9 and 5130.26) and 'Distilled Spirits Permit Counts' (report dated 13 June 2025), both downloaded from ttb.gov; TTB's all-forms index for the titles of F 5000.24, 5130.9, 5130.26, 5120.17, 5110.40, 5110.11 and 5110.28; CRA 'Excise duty rates' page (Excise Act for beer, Excise Act, 2001 for spirits and wine; Bill C-30 extension of the 2% cap and the halved rates on the first 15,000 hL, royal assent 18 June 2026). The Canadian establishment counts are carried from the 3121 Craft Beverage Production record. Tier B: Hypepotamus (27 Oct 2025) on Next Glass acquiring Ekos (terms undisclosed, 1,200+ producers, $8M Series A led by Noro-Moseley and $21M Series B, PSG-backed acquirer, two-year price freeze); Wine Industry Advisor (16 Jan 2025) on Fullsteam/Commerce7 buying WineDirect's SaaS division, VineSpring (4 Apr 2022, 560+ clients) and WinePulse (9 Sept 2025, 240+ wineries); BizWest (23 June 2022) on Encompass buying vintrace (670+ wineries); the PR Newswire release and Kirkland & Ellis note on VIP completing the Encompass acquisition (14 Sept 2026, terms undisclosed, brands kept); PYMNTS (12 Feb 2025) on Warburg Pincus agreeing to buy VIP at about $1B; Pulse 2.0 (21 Jan 2019) on Orchestra's $14M from Radian Capital; BusinessDen (10 Apr 2019) on Arryved's $5M. Tier C: vendor homepages and About pages for customer counts (Commerce7, Breww, OrderPort, Vinoshipper, Sovos) and Next Glass's list of owned brands. NOT sourced: market size and vendor revenue UNVERIFIED — no vendor publishes revenue. No US count of bonded wineries was extracted (TTB publishes it by state in spreadsheets that were not parsed). Arryved's $20M 2021 round (BevNET, Brewbound) and Orchestra's current ownership could not be opened (403s; Orchestra's domains merely redirect to Encompass). Beer30's and Whiskey Systems' sites did not serve content. eSquared and DistillerySoft could not be verified as products and are not listed. Ekos's Canadian provincial and federal reporting claim appeared only in a search snippet. No Brewers Association or Wines Vines figures were used.
Where the industry talks
The associations, forums and events where people in this trade actually talk shop — where to listen before entering, and where the first customers are found. Each link was opened on the date shown.
National wine-producer association (Ottawa) with a member directory and sales statistics; the Canadian winery buyer of production and DTC software
National association of American wineries (Washington, DC) with compliance resources on labels and direct shipping
Trade body for independent craft distillers; site returned 403 to an automated check
US body for small and independent brewers; its Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo is where brewery software is sold (listed on the 3121 record)
The largest US wine and grape trade show (Sacramento); 2027 schedule posted at check
Wine Industry Network trade show and conference; 14th annual, Dec 3, 2026, Sonoma County Fairgrounds
Canadian Craft Brewers Association, Ontario Craft Brewers, Craft Brewers Conference, ProBrewer and Craft Beer Professionals are on the 3121 Craft Beverage Production record and not repeated. Spirits Canada returned 403; the Craft Distillers Guild of BC site showed only a holding page. Reddit was not checked.
The businesses it sells to
Operating-business records filed along the same branch of NAICS — the customers of this software, screened as businesses in their own right.