Food Industry News, Insights, and Education for the CPG Community

Keeping your books in order is a good practice for brands of all kinds, but for companies looking to gain a foothold in the cannabis space, it’s a particularly critical component of running a healthy business.

Venture firm PowerPlant Ventures announced yesterday the close of its second fund. At over three times the size of its predecessor, Fund II, which closed at $165 million, will allow the company to further refine its deal structure, co-founder and partner Mark Rampolla told NOSH. He added that the firm “[wants] to change this mindset that capital only cares about return.”

All presentations from Cannabis Forum Summer 2019 are now available to stream on our NOSH YouTube channel. Held in June in New York City, the industry conference brought together hundreds of cannabis curious food and beverage founders and executives to discuss and explore the present and future of the emerging market.

David Gotlib is the founder and CEO of Savorly, a brand delivering innovative frozen appetizers in a fun and interesting way. The company’s puff pastries, Belgian croquettes, mini bagels and other bite-sized foods were developed for millennial consumers that are looking to entertain guests and connect over hors d’oeuvres.

Plenty of new products hit the shelves this July, including several treats to beat the summer heat. This month saw ice cream launches from McConnell’s, Oatly and Perfect Day and on-the-go smoothie options from Stonyfield, Buddy Nutrition and Charles & Alice. Check out more of July’s new products below, which also includes launches by Barilla, Chobani and Green Giant.

Meatless burger brand Impossible Foods is two steps closer to entering supermarket retail following FDA approval of a key ingredient and a new co-packer. The brand told NOSH it plans to enter retail in September.

It’s time to pull the curtain back on our first set of NOSH Live Winter 2019 speakers, revealing two of the leaders from Mondelēz International’s team focused on ways innovation, investment, and imagination can change the snack business.

Tyson is gearing up to launch a line of functional snacks later this year under a new brand called Pact. The line will launch with four varieties of Snack Bites — Gut Instinct (cranberry kombucha with probiotics), Gut Ahead (turmeric ginger with prebiotics), Vibe On (matcha blueberry “energizing”) and Glow With It (cocoa/coconut with collagen). Each bag of bites will be sold refrigerated, but last at ambient temperature for up to a week.

This month, San Diego-based Sunday Scaries, which produces CBD infused tinctures and gummy supplements, introduced its first ready-to-drink product: YOLO, a 2 oz. shot that pairs 50 mg of full spectrum CBD with a 200 mg dose of natural caffeine.

Like its three co-founders, direct-to-consumer energy snack company Verb is graduating to its next stage of life. Last year, two of its three co-founders graduated college and moved Verb’s headquarters to Boston from the Yale University campus, where they first created it. Today, the company announced it had raised $3.5 million from investors.

Snack brand Bobo’s is ready for its next phase of growth courtesy of the close of a round of capital investment and the opening of a new production facility, CEO TJ McIntyre told NOSH. The goal is to eventually sell the company, and the raises are necessary steps, McIntyre told NOSH.

Plant-based brands fight labeling laws, find breakfast partnerships in this week’s Checkout.

In the next installment of Sauce in the City, Catherine Smart, founder of Not Just Co, explores how she went about raising capital for her fledgling food company.

In 2018 Paul Coletta, the CEO Urban Remedy, told NOSH that he would take the company into new markets beyond California. Now, nearly a year to the day, the company officially announced that it will launch into the New York metro area via a partnership with Whole Foods Market. The move comes after Urban Remedy achieved profitability in its Northern California market, posting an average annual growth rate for the trailing three years of over 80%.