Erin Cabrey

In this week’s Checkout, coconut flour-based tortilla and chip maker The Real Coconut rebrands to Sana Foods; low-sugar baby and toddler food brand Serenity Kids raises $7 million; and plant-based bacon maker Hooray Foods secures $2 million in a seed financing.

Can a Boston based cellular technology company solve the taste and texture challenges around plant-based proteins? Investors are betting more than $200 million on it. Boston-based food technology company Motif FoodWorks announced today it has closed a $226 million funding round, which the company will use to expand R&D capabilities as it looks to “solve key sensory and nutritional challenges” in plant-based meat and dairy products and commercialize its first ingredients next year.

In this week’s Checkout, Beech-Nut exits the rice cereal segment following a voluntary recall due to high arsenic levels; Instacart announces a $1 million ad initiative to support Black-owned brands; LiveKindly Collective acquires The Dutch Weed Burger; and actress Zooey Deschanel joins better-for-you shopping app Merryfield as co-founder and chief creative officer.

Popcorn startup Opopop wants to make popcorn “fun and cool again” — a mission it hopes to achieve by innovating in a space that hasn’t seen many major product advances since the invention of the air popper decades ago. Launched this week by music industry entrepreneurs Jonas Tempel and Bradley Roulier, Opopop is beginning by reimagining the microwave popcorn space.

Alternative protein company SIMULATE, maker of plant-based chicken nugget and patty brand NUGGS, announced today it has raised $50 million to fuel new product innovation and grow its retail presence both in the U.S. and internationally.

After nearly a decade in business as a food manufacturer, direct-to-consumer snack brand NatureBox is taking on the role of retailer with the launch of Partner Market, an ecommerce store for wellness-focused food and beverage products. The move is designed to allow the company to offer more variety for both direct to consumer customers and for an expanding corporate business. It comes after the company received requests for more products beyond its current offerings.

In this week’s Checkout, Post Holdings buys TreeHouse Foods’ private label cereal business; Ready, Set, Food raises $3.5 million; J.M. Smucker Co. reports fiscal Q4 earnings; and Stonyfield launches a Toxins Calculator alongside new sustainability commitments.

Whether it’s taste or growing costs, consumers have long had to consider sacrifices in order to protect the environment. Now a brand is sacrificing precious label space for the same goal, even minimizing its own brand name and other front-of-pack callouts to promote sustainability. With its bold new packaging for its plant-based burger hitting retailers this month, alt-protein brand Tofurky is effectively putting its branding on the line to ask sustainability-minded consumers to take the next step beyond plant-based purchases, encouraging environmental advocacy through civic engagement.

In this week’s Checkout, keto-friendly bar brand Keto Krisp closes a funding round and adds an RXBAR alum to its team; Instacart charts international expansion and looks back at shopper trends over the past year; and Whole Foods releases its first ever plant-based trend predictions.

Waste from single-use shipping packaging continues to be one of the most notable barriers in the CPG industry’s push toward sustainability, and the recent pandemic-driven ecommerce boom has only made the problem more urgent as demand for and cost of cardboard boxes surge. While taking on this challenge may seem like a “crazy idea,” with a new round of funding for support, reusable shipping box maker Boox believes it has what it takes to give corrugated cardboard boxes a run for their money.