IM8 reached $186 million in annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, in its first 17 months. Prenetics, the Nasdaq-listed parent of the David Beckham-backed brand, disclosed what it cost to get there: selling and marketing expenses hit $35.5 million in 2025, equal to 38.5% of total revenue, and the company told investors that ratio is headed to 45% to 50% in 2026.
Prenetics breaks out marketing spend as both a dollar figure and a share of revenue in its earnings releases, giving brand operators a specific benchmark for what it costs to build a nine-figure direct-to-consumer, or DTC, supplement brand from zero in under a year and a half.
The marketing line on Prenetics' income statement
IM8 launched in late 2024 as a Prenetics subsidiary, with Beckham joining as a strategic investor and co-founder. The brand reached $100 million in annualized recurring revenue in 11 months, then $120 million by December 2025, according to Prenetics' fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release. By May 2026, monthly revenue of roughly $15.5 million put IM8 on pace for about $186 million in ARR, the company said in a May 20 announcement.
The spending behind that growth is consolidated at the Prenetics level rather than broken out by brand, but the company is explicit that IM8 is driving it. Selling and marketing expenses across the business rose to $16.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, or 44% of that quarter's revenue, up from $1.6 million a year earlier. For the full year, total company marketing spend was $35.5 million against $92.4 million in total revenue, a ratio of 38.5%. IM8 alone contributed $60.1 million of that revenue. Prenetics attributed the trend to confidence in its acquisition channels, saying in its earnings release that it was "deploying capital into high-return customer acquisition channels with proven unit economics."
The company backed that framing with underlying metrics: a customer acquisition cost, or CAC, payback period of 3.5 months in the fourth quarter, down from 3.9 months in the third quarter, and a projected 24-month ratio of customer lifetime value to CAC of about 3-to-1. Gross margin on IM8 products held near 60%.
Why a rising CAC doesn't worry Prenetics
IM8's marketing spend is increasingly tied to a shift the company made deliberately in January 2026: pushing new customers from monthly to quarterly subscriptions. Blended average order value rose from about $110 for all of 2025 to roughly $233 for new customers in January and February 2026. About half of buyers of the company's premium Beckham Stack bundle and more than a third of Daily Ultimate Essentials customers are now choosing the quarterly option.
Prenetics said the resulting increase in blended customer acquisition cost reflects a choice to acquire higher-quality, longer-duration subscribers rather than a loss of efficiency, and that the change also improves cash recycling and lowers per-unit fulfillment costs, since customers prepay for three months at a time.
The 45% to 50% marketing-spend guidance for 2026 reflects that shift as much as it reflects higher acquisition costs. Part of the increase is IM8 buying a different, more valuable customer.
Equity instead of appearance fees
IM8's roster of paid partners has expanded well past Beckham. Tennis player Aryna Sabalenka joined as global ambassador and shareholder in June 2025, becoming Prenetics' first current-athlete equity holder. Formula 1 driver Ollie Bearman joined as a global ambassador and shareholder in February 2026, and NBA forward Giannis Antetokounmpo also holds equity as part of the same roster, alongside a name, image and likeness deal with Inter Miami CF that includes rights to at least four players, among them Lionel Messi. In May 2026, author and podcast host Jay Shetty became IM8's first ambassador from outside professional sport, bringing an audience the company put at more than 70 million followers and 700 million monthly views across platforms.
Every one of those partners holds equity in Prenetics rather than a flat fee, the company has said in each announcement. Yeung joined executives from Cymbiotika, Therabody and Pathwater on a March industry panel hosted by consumer growth fund RX3, where the group said they measure influencer return on investment through time-bound tests and use equity to align ambassadors with long-term performance, according to a MarketBeat account of the event. Sportico reported that Inter Miami's stake sits at the club level and carries standard shareholder rights but no board seat.
The equity model shifts risk in a way flat fees don't. A celebrity paid a fixed sponsorship fee gets rewarded regardless of whether the brand grows. A celebrity holding equity is betting on the same outcome the company is, which gives Prenetics a cheaper cash outlay up front in exchange for diluting ownership as the brand succeeds.
A credentialed roster, with room for creators
IM8's content leans heavily on its Scientific Advisory Board, which includes physicians affiliated with Mayo Clinic and Cedars-Sinai, and on a clinical trial the company commissioned through the San Francisco Research Institute. The product carries NSF Certified for Sport certification, a standard some competitors lack. Yeung told Entrepreneur the brand launched exclusively direct-to-consumer because it let the company control the narrative and customer experience.
IM8's own materials complicate any claim that the brand avoided conventional influencer marketing. Its January 2025 U.S. launch release credited part of its early customer surge to "health, fitness and lifestyle influencers" sharing the brand alongside Beckham's TODAY Show appearance. A company-hosted event in Miami that April drew roughly 150 wellness influencers, creators and medical advisors, according to StockTitan's coverage of the event. The record shows both operating at once: credentialed specialists and athletes carry the trust signal, while a wider base of lifestyle creators handles volume and awareness.
What other brands can and can't copy
Several pieces of IM8's model are structural advantages other brand operators won't have. A co-founder with Beckham's name recognition and Instagram reach is not replicable. Neither is the $171 million in adjusted liquidity Prenetics now holds, built up through 2025 and 2026 divestitures of its legacy diagnostics businesses, which gives IM8 room to keep spending aggressively on customer acquisition. A roughly $100 monthly price point, which Yeung described to Entrepreneur, also assumes a customer base willing to pay a premium most supplement shoppers won't.
What is replicable, based on the earnings data, is the mechanics: a DTC-only distribution model that keeps margin and customer data in-house, a subscription structure that trades short-term CAC efficiency for long-term value once the cohort math supports it, and an ambassador strategy that ties partner incentives to the same growth curve the company is chasing. For operators evaluating their own marketing mix, IM8's disclosed 38.5% spend-to-revenue ratio in its first full year, climbing toward 45% to 50% in 2026, is a useful benchmark for what aggressive, well-capitalized customer acquisition costs in this category right now.