IM8 has been named the official nutrition partner of the NBA in Southeast Asia and Australia

IM8, the premium health and longevity brand 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 has named the fast-growing brand its official nutrition partner in Australia and Southeast Asia.

NBA and IM8, a subsidiary of Prenetics Global Limited, a leading global health services company dedicated to improving consumer health, announced on Monday a multi-year collaboration that makes them official nutrition partners in Australia and eight markets in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

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Beckham and IM8 co-founder Danny Yeung were joined by NBA executive and two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh in Hong Kong to make the announcement – which continues to show IM8’s rapid growth and how it has impacted some of the world’s most elite athletes and leagues.

Yeung took time out of his busy schedule to talk to Fox Business about this exciting partnership, but also about the journey IM8 has had to get to this point. Like many entrepreneurs, Yeung is constantly working on his product, and as someone who “came from nothing,” seeing it reach new heights is pure joy.

“To be fair, in the last three days in Singapore, I’ve given three lectures, and I’m very happy,” Yeung said via video call, smiling from ear to ear. “I had the opportunity to meet amazing people, amazing entrepreneurs, amazing athletes [F1 driver] Ollie Bearman. Monday, I was with David Beckham in Hong Kong. This weekend, I’m in F1 in the garage. It has been a dream come true for me. As a child immigrant to the US from nothing and someone who dropped out of high school at 15 and my first job was a telemarketer – this was a dream come true.

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Yeung, co-founder and CEO of Prenetics, came to the US from China when he was five years old. Although IM8 is the fastest growing premium supplement brand on record – over 50 million servings have been shipped to date – they remain remarkably humble in their upbringing.

But the grind to get to this point started at a young age.

“I started working at age 12 selling baseball cards,” he said. “…I just love sports at a young age like many people. To be able to work 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 create amazing products and also very strategic about it, So, again, everything I believe in terms of IM8 is the culmination of all the experiences of the past youth and of the past experiences. 20 years more.”

What exactly is IM8? The brand was built with an elite team of scientists that includes 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 one sachet, all engineered to replace 16 different supplements in one drink, which is NSF Certified for Sports, non-GMO, vegan, free from common allergens and does not contain artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners.

“The product itself, we have 90 ingredients with clinical doses — I think that’s important,” Yeung said. “… We’re a subscription-based business. So if it doesn’t work, people won’t continue to subscribe. The athletes, I can tell you, I have a lot of athletes that are in the product, and we can’t talk about it.”

If you watched the US Open tennis this summer, Aryna Sabalenka, the back-to-back women’s singles champion, was promoting the product and ads appeared on TV screens and message boards in Flushing throughout the tournament. Yeung said it was Sabalenka who actually reached out about the partnership after taking the product for three months and loving the results – proof of the exact mission IM8 is set to accomplish, especially when Beckham comes into the mix.

“It’s amazing and I feel so grateful that they believed in me because three years ago, nobody cared about Danny. If the product is wrong, it’s called David,” Yeung said. “He’s not an ambassador — he’s a founder.

“To give David a lot of credit, when I met David, our market capitalization was $40 million. We went from $1 billion to $40 million market cap. So, you know who your friends are when you go from $1 billion to $40 million, right? So, they could easily say, ‘Oh s—, this is a sinking ship. I don’t want anything or Danny to do with Prenetics.’ But they chose to trust us, and they’re amazing because number one – they love the brand and the product. His parents took him. His blood tells me the best. We’ve been able to grow from a $40 million market cap to almost half a billion now in the last 18 months. That gives insight and insight.

“David said to me, ‘If we do this, Danny you have to promise me that every product we make has to be the best. Otherwise, I can’t put my name on it.'”

With Beckham on board, IM8 brought the likes of Sabalenka, Antetokounmpo, Bearman, actress Lily Collins, podcaster and writer Jay Shetty and other global partners and ambassadors.

And now, the NBA, after doing its own vetting of the product, is in the mix.

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“He studies all the ingredients, the results, the certifications and before any conversation, he makes sure he checks every ingredient and [certifications],” Yeung said. “Then, we had a conversation of, ‘Hey, how do we do this?’ and ‘Let’s start with Southeast Asia and Australia.’ It’s one of the fastest growing markets.”

The future is certainly bright for this brand that leads the supplement industry, and as Yeung is constantly working to improve and expand, IM8 also has its eyes on other industries, 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 come soon. “We’re releasing gummies in Q1, the first half of the year in ’27. Again, we have a secret weapon when it comes to gummies. I can’t reveal too much right now, but it’s going to be like, ‘S—, you’re that guy again.’