CPG Week Podcast: Jason Kelce’s Hot Investment And Other Year-End Funding News

[00:00:05] Monica Watrous: Welcome to the CPJUIC podcast by BevNET and Nosh. I'm Monica Watrous, here with my co-host Brad Avery. Now here is the latest in food and beverage industry news. Jason Kelsey is growing his investment portfolio in consumer products from beer and clothing to hot sauce. The former NFL player and brother to current NFL player Travis Kelsey has invested in Hank's sauce. This is the first capital raised by the Millville, New Jersey based company outside of friends and family and angel investors. Hanks would not disclose the details of the investment, but confirmed that Kelsey was the sole investor in this round. Founded in 2011, Hanks was developed by Chef Brian Hank Ruxton and a group of college roommates favoring a mild flavor forward approach to enhancing food instead of overpowering it. The brand markets over a dozen different varieties of hot sauce, as well as seasoning rubs and various limited-time offerings. Over the years, the brand has developed a following in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, allowing it to scale its manufacturing into a 10,000-square-foot facility and a beachfront restaurant on the Jersey Shore. The new funding will help Hank's expand distribution and build brand awareness, while educating consumers on how Hank's sauce can be incorporated into everyday life as a versatile ingredient, according to co-founder Matt Pittaluga. The products are currently sold in more than 5,000 stores nationwide, and the brand sees significant opportunity for growth in food service, catering, and other away-from-home channels. The hot sauce category was globally valued at $3.3 billion in 2024, with the US making up about $1 billion of that market. Somewhat different from other condiment subcategories, hot sauce consumers are loyal to their brand of choice, making it difficult to attract new customers. Additionally, hot sauce faces a longer time frame for repeat purchases, as most users only apply a couple drops per meal.

[00:02:09] Brad Avery: You know, there's so many hot sauce brands out there. I'd imagine that consumers would want to try all the different products. Look at hot ones.

[00:02:17] Monica Watrous: Right. And Hot Ones has come a long way in the work it's done to increase exposure and visibility for a lot of these craft hot sauce makers. But I don't know, you find what you like and you kind of just stick with it. I actually am not a hot sauce consumer, so I can't speak to that consumption pattern.

[00:02:35] Brad Avery: I love hot sauce, so I definitely understand the challenge that it takes a long time to get through a bottle. And so repeat is difficult in this category. You know, does Jason Kelsey being involved in a brand make me more likely to buy it? Personally, probably not. But you know, I think there's, you're more connected to the Kelsey's on a emotional level.

[00:02:57] Monica Watrous: You're not wrong. As a Kansas City girly, I do have a soft spot for Travis and his brother by extension. Maybe I'd give it a try. It doesn't sound like it's a burn your face off kind of hot sauce.

[00:03:11] Brad Avery: There you go.

[00:03:12] Monica Watrous: Try something new. Yeah.

[00:03:14] Brad Avery: GoodBelly and Cherubundi parent company Next Foods closed a $10 million funding round last week, led by their existing investment partner, ECP Growth, or Emil Capital Partners. The round is the latest in a number of funding tranches the company has had over the years. Most recently, ECP led a $15 million round for Cherubundi in 2020 and participated in a $12 million financing for Next Foods in 2018. The two brands merged in 2023 to form a single umbrella company. About six months ago, the company brought on Mark Seguin as CEO. Mark, who joined this summer, said the business has grown to over 24,000 points of distribution nationwide, but that's not counting sports partnerships and campuses for the Cherubundi brand, which is very big in the college athlete sphere. According to Seguin, the GoodBelly brand will look to quickly expand next year off the back of a recent brand refresh. And since rolling out updated packaging, he said GoodBelly's velocities have improved by over 40% in retail. As well, GoodBelly will introduce a quart-sized product with 11 grams of plant-based protein in Q1 2026. He said that the product should be ready for preview at Natural Products Expo West.

[00:04:32] Monica Watrous: In other investment news, Gen-Z-founded hummus brand Habiza became Food Media Platform Foodbeast's first investment, marking the debut of its new venture arm, Foodbeast Ventures. The deal will give the Los Angeles-based brand both capital to fuel its growth and strategic content creation support from the media platform's in-house team. Founded in 2021 by Jonathan Sror, the Lebanese-style hummus was inspired by Sror's great-grandmother's recipe, and he began forming the brand after being repeatedly dissatisfied with the texture of products readily available in grocery stores. Currently, the brand sells five varieties of hummus and has placement in nearly 1,000 stores nationwide. Habeesa posted one of the highest unit velocities in natural retail in its category and grew 333% in a single year, according to Food Beast. Now, with its manufacturing facility and distinct process, the brand is ready to scale at retail. Though Habiza still has a fairly narrow distribution footprint, with placements at West Coast Target stores, Central Market, Bristol Farms, Mother's Market, Erewhon, and others, Foodbeast claims expansions to divisions of mainstream partners like Albertsons and Giant Food are already in the works.

[00:05:51] Brad Avery: And in regulatory news, last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to move cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance, opening up the ability for researchers to begin studying the plant. Now, notably, this is not full legalization for cannabis, nor does it invalidate or preempt state-level restrictions on intoxicating hemp products. Rather, the order marks the beginning of a multi-stage administrative process, and once the DEA formally publishes a rule, it will be given an effective date, typically about 30 to 60 days after the publication in the Federal Register. The move, of course, arrives as Congress passed a law that would effectively ban hemp derived THC in food and beverage and CPG products on November 12th, 2026. Now, many in the industry see that not as a looming sort of Damocles, but rather as a deadline in order to get regulation passed on the books that will allow for the continued legal sale of hemp derived products. So as our colleague Lukas Southard wrote in BevNET this week, beyond the shelf, farmers are fearing hemp regulations. And this is hanging over the heads of the industry. Kentucky hemp farmers were sounding an alarm that something needs to be done quickly, that this deadline does not pass.

[00:07:21] Monica Watrous: Smoke them while you got them. We'll be continuing to follow all of the regulatory movements around this category on BevNET and Nosh. On a lighter note, our colleague and resident candy connoisseur, Shauna Golden, recently covered the top candy trends of the past year. And according to her report, freeze-dried floor mats continue to flourish, spicy is the new sour, and Dubai chocolate has exploded into the mainstream. According to the National Confectioners Association, U.S. confectionery sales are expected to surpass $70 billion across all outlets by 2029. insiders can reach on a story on Nosh.

[00:08:02] Brad Avery: I'll tell you at NACS this year, I definitely saw a lot of the freeze-dried candy, spicy for sure. There was spicy Skittles gummies.

[00:08:11] Monica Watrous: Yes, the Skittles Fuego gummies.

[00:08:14] Brad Avery: They actually had some kick. It wasn't nothing spice. It was real spice.

[00:08:19] Monica Watrous: Yes, when you see mainstream brands not playing around in these kinds of trends, it's a thing. Absolutely.

[00:08:28] Brad Avery: Hey, Monica, would you want to try an energy drink from a casket company? Would it kill me? No, no. In fact, the website specifies it does not contain human remains.

[00:08:41] Monica Watrous: I know, but are they trying to sell casket too? I'm concerned about their revenue streams and any kind of synergies. So just tell me more.

[00:08:49] Brad Avery: So Tidying Caskets is a direct-to-consumer casket service. When you need to plan a funeral, you can purchase the caskets online. They'll have them sent straight to the funeral home. But last month, they also launched a wake-sugar-free energy drink, which says right there on the label that you can sleep when you're dead. I spoke with the company and while right now it is certainly marketing, they also see it as a potential real revenue stream if things work out. It's only available direct to consumer at the moment, but they're already talking about getting it onto Amazon and looking to get it into some brick and mortar, whether it's on premise or retail accounts.

[00:09:31] Monica Watrous: Have you tried the product?

[00:09:33] Brad Avery: Not yet, but they're going to be sending us some samples. Wow. I hope it doesn't kill you. I do too. I think they could do a little more with the packaging if I was to offer my insight here, but I think they definitely got a strong sensibility. You know, they're disrupting the coffin business, I suppose. They even have a YouTube channel. They've been running this series called Grave Conversations, where they have celebrities sit down in caskets and do an interview there. They've had Matthew Lillard on, and Kevin Smith, and Nathan Fillion. So they get some big names here sitting in their caskets, talking about all sorts of things. Death, mostly. It's a way to make a living.

[00:10:23] Monica Watrous: Well played. Here are some other notable bits of news from the week. Laird Superfood is powering up its food and beverage platform with plans to acquire all outstanding equity of Novitas LLC in an all cash transaction valued at $38.5 million. Nutribolt, the parent company of C4 Energy and Bloom, has named Jason Cantelli as chief commercial officer. And finally, Founders Row, a new venture studio focused on founder-led consumer businesses, announced today its backing of direct-to-consumer soft pretzel brand Hotbox Pretzels. For these stories and more, become an insider at BevNET and Nosh. And if you're enjoying the show, please subscribe on your listening platform of choice. That wraps up this edition of CPG Week by BevNET and Nosh. Thank you to our audio engineer, Joshua Pratt, our director is Mike Schneider, and our designer is Aaron Willette. If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe on your listening platform of choice, and we will see you next time.