Bourbon whiskey brand Penelope Bourbon announced a critical partnership with Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) to grow its spirits and barrel lending platform. The newly-founded barrel-based lending program grants Penelope the opportunity to use the value of its existing barrels to access capital and strategically scale its barrel production.

As terms of the partnership, Truist will provide Penelope with necessary funding to increase barrel inventory, allowing the brand the opportunity to further expand into new markets. The additional capital will fuel the growth and expansion required to support the increased demand of Penelope’s products across its portfolio, while allowing the brand to remain a family-owned and fully bootstrapped company.

“Truist introduced Penelope with the opportunity to continue to grow in new markets through its innovative asset-based barrel program,” said Michael Paladini, CEO and Co-Founder of Penelope Bourbon. “This exciting opportunity has allowed us to gain access to more barrels in order to scale growth over the next decade, and beyond.”

The partnership comes at a pivotal time for Penelope after a record year of 166% Y-O-Y growth.

“We recognize that distillers and spirits companies sit on liquid assets that retain and increase in value which can represent future growth for their businesses,” said Joe Goode, Truist Beverage Industry Manager. “Through our barrel lending platform, we’re able to help spirit companies tap into the value of their assets quicker and access capital that can be used to help them accelerate their businesses for the short- and long-term.”

“We put our clients at the center of everything we do by partnering with them to identify and customize solutions for each stage of their business’s journey,” said Cody Matthews, VP and Relationship Manager at Truist.

Named after the founder’s daughter, Penelope boasts a series of four grain straight bourbon whiskey expressions that are all blended from three different mash bills. Penelope’s two cornerstone expressions, Penelope Bourbon and Penelope Bourbon Barrel Strength, have been awarded twenty combined industry accolades. In addition to its cornerstone expressions, Penelope continues to introduce new, limited releases within its Cooper Series, Toasted Series, and Founders Reserve.

For more information, visit https://penelopebourbon.com/.