Brad Avery

As more Americans continue to work from home and look to cut extraneous expenses — say, a stop at the juice bar on the way to the gym — lockdown-era habits have entrenched themselves into consumer routines. In turn, many frozen fruit producers have embraced smoothie kits, with some innovative brands managing to outpace the category and maintain strong growth despite the headwinds facing the CPG industry today.

Last week, plant-based ramen startup immi announced it raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Touch Capital and featuring a slate of celebrity investors such as tennis pro Naomi Osaka and R&B singer Usher. Now, the company is looking to quadruple its retail footprint this year and bring manufacturing up to pace as demand rises.

After bringing in $31 million in financing over the past year, Chinese food brand Xiao Chi Jie (XCJ) is preparing for its retail debut, beginning with a new name: MiLa.

When plant-based nutrition brand Soylent began in 2013, it adopted a tech-influenced approach, dubbing its products Soylent 1.1, Soylent 2.0, and so on. Now, after its acquisition by CPG portfolio company Starco Brands earlier this week, the food and beverage maker is in stable release.

Publicly traded consumer products company Starco Brands, Inc. has acquired plant-based food and beverage maker Soylent, completing the brand’s evolution from red hot food-tech startup to cross-category CPG platform.

Looking to meet demand for clean label sports nutrition products, Boston-based food innovation lab Chew announced this month the launch of its first in-house brand, Fastfood.

Less than a year after it bought out its former investment partner, the company is rapidly scaling operations, introducing fresh innovation and entering new channels as it projects to grow sales 5x this year.

Kellogg Co. chairman and CEO Steven Cahillane told investors and analysts during an earnings call today that the company had reassessed its outlook on its Morningstar Farms brand.

The Hain Celestial Group bested analysts’ expectations in its Q2 earnings report today, as the company saw net sales decline just -4.8% while growing its snack business and expanding distribution.

In this week’s news roundup, actress Anne Hathaway has invested in food tech company The EVERY Co., Brazilian frozen foods brand Brazi Bites has named La Porteña Foods as the winner of its first Latino Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, and The Hershey Company reports Q4 and FY 2022 earnings.