Can Gold Medal Ventures Find General Mills’ Next Generation of Winning Brands?
General Mills’ success may have been built through stalwart brands like Yoplait, Annie’s and Cheerios, but its next phase of growth is going to rely heavily on its Gold Medal Ventures division.
Described on its website as “the disruptive innovation and investment arm of General Mills,” Gold Medal Ventures (GMV) was formed in 2021 by rolling together both the company’s 301 Inc venture arm as well as its G-Works incubation studio. Former yogurt exec Doug Martin was promoted to the role of chief brand and disruptive growth officer.
In addition to essentially acting as General Mills’ CMO, Martin was tasked with bringing new innovation to market and uniting those kinds of innovation efforts from General Mills’ broad set of brands. The goal, he recently told Adweek, was to ensure there was a broader, more forward-thinking strategy and “spread our bets across a continuum using all the tools that are available to us.”
Both business units have also undergone significant changes since they came under the GMV roof
G-Works has brought three brands to market in roughly the past two years: dairy-free cream cheese spread Bold Cultr, kids’ constipation snack brand Doolies and “blood sugar-friendly” snack brand Good Measure. Both Bold Cultr and Doolies were short-lived, sunsetting earlier this year. Bold Cultr was abruptly pulled from the market just weeks after online pre-orders were announced.
Good Measure remains active on Gold Medal Ventures’ website, and exhibited at March’s Natural Products Expo West trade show.
While 301 has continued to invest capital, its focus has shifted from branded CPG products, with prior investments including No Cow, Rhythm Superfoods and Urban Remedy, to that of technology and agriculture. Following 2020’s departure managing director John Haugen, in the past two years the group has placed capital in pollinator tech company BeeHero, cat food subscription business Smalls, packaging film recycler Myplas, and food supplier software program GrubMarket.
According to the Gold Medal Ventures Website, 301 has also exited brands including Kite Hill, Pots and Co, Good Culture and Purely Elizabeth. (Both Good Culture and Purely Elizabeth are now part of the portfolio at Haugen’s current venture firm, SEMCAP)
301 also announced in April 2022 it had placed $15 million into two early-stage venture capital funds, Fearless Fund and Supply Change Capital, both of which focus on investing in under-represented entrepreneurs.
Where Gold Medal Ventures goes next is unclear. General Mills’ wider organization is still squarely focused on its overarching Accelerate strategy, which was introduced in 2021 and hinges on four pillars: “boldly building brands, relentlessly innovating, unleashing scale, and standing for good.”
“We think of innovation on a spectrum” Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening told analysts at February’s Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference. “We continue to leverage each of these innovation tools to help us win today and to set us up for success tomorrow.”
