Carol Ortenberg

In the last edition of Category Close-Up: Product Showcase we spoke with executives from ice cream brands about their latest product launches and the category at large. In this special bonus segment, you’ll hear from a few more brands about the market dynamics that are currently shaping the ice cream industry and what their companies have been up to over the last several months.

After 150 years in business, Graeter’s ice cream CEO Richard Graeter says he’s still committed to using the same process his great-grandmother Regina used in the 1900s.But that doesn’t mean the family business is resistant to change: the Ohio-based company announced last week that it would launch a vegan version of its ice cream in collaboration with food tech company Perfect Day.

Today, holding company HumanCo alongside venture firm CAVU filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with the end goal of launching a SPAC known as HumanCo Acquisition Corp. The SPAC is seeking to raise $225 million on the NASDAQ stock exchange, eventually trading under the ticker symbol HMCOU. CAVU has committed an additional $25 million in private placement.

Wicked Foods is hopping across the pond, and it’s picked up some talent along the way. The plant-based food brand, currently sold in United Kingdom Tesco stores under the brand Wicked Kitchen, will also add Unovis operating partner and former 301 Inc business development principal Pete Speranza as CEO.

Roughly three years after it invested in the upstart brand, snack company Mars Incorporated announced today that it had acquired KIND Snacks. Mars previously placed a minority investment in KIND, a deal which gave Mars the rights to “lead the growth of the business” outside of the US and Canada.

Following the May hiring of Sally Grimes as CEO, snack brand Clif Bar announced today the appointment of Rizal Hamdallah as the company’s first chief innovation officer. Hamdallah joins the company after serving as global chief innovation officer at Ocean Spray Cranberries, where he led R&D and the company’s incubation program, The Lighthouse.

Earlier this year in April, ice cream brand Three Twins announced it would be closing its doors with its assets sold to pay down creditors. Now the company’s former Wisconsin factory has a new owner, High Road Craft Brands. The deal comes as High Road gears up for an ambitious distribution play, aiming at an eventual roll-up of other ice cream companies.

Just a month after Israeli food technology company ZeroEgg made its U.S. debut, the company announced it has closed a $5 million round of funding to help accelerate its growth.

Latin American company NotCo, which earlier this fall raised $85 million, announced last week it was launching a new non-dairy milk in Whole Foods nationwide — part of the company’s strategy to enter the US market. NotCo also hopes to launch cheese and other meat replacements next year as well.

In this episode of Market Share, host Carol Ortenberg, the editor of NOSH, will sit down with Nona Lim, CEO and founder of fresh focused Asian food brand, Nona Lim. We’ll discuss how Nona went about refining her product line, and in the process, developing a greater understanding of herself, learning when to push forward with what she felt was right.