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

Natural Products Expo West has brought about a slew of new product launches, but it took a host of new faces joining CPG companies to support these investments.

Alpha Food Labs founder Mike Lee sees the future of food through the lens of personalized nutrition and experiential marketing; Launchpad founder Jeremy Smith on why brands shouldn’t let their brokers do all the talking, especially at Costco; pints and perspective on beer from Mr. Guinness; taking a lift with the Spindrift of hard seltzer. This episode is presented by Top Health Ingredients.

BevNET’s Ray Latif switched gears from sipping to snacking to meet some of the entrepreneurs from the Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace tent at Expo West.

To suppliers, the end of the Whole Foods relationship isn’t a binary anymore, where they’re either in Whole Foods or they aren’t really in the natural channel at all.

Hot off the announcement of a $103M round of funding, the co-founders of Ancient Nutrition chatted with Project NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg about how the company has achieved such rapid growth in a short period of time.

Try even as the most hard-core carnivore might, it’s hard not to buy into the world-changing vibe at Beyond Meat. A visit with Goldman, the organic tea crusader who is currently the company’s board chair, finds him excitedly pointing out the massive expansion that’s about to take place.

From coconut cashew butter to avocado chips, here are the latest launches from Expo West.

Ancient Nutrition, a brand of “real food nutritional products,” announced today the close of a $103 million minority investment. Led by VMG Partners, the deal also included investment from Hillhouse Capital, ICONIQ Capital a 100-plus member co-investor network hereon known as the “Ancient Pioneers.”

RxBar is ready to establish itself as a platform brand. The first iteration of this expansion is a line of protein-enhanced nut butters, which launched today.

Ohio-based Vegy Vida announced Monday that it raised $1.8 million in financing through Keiretsu Forum Midwest, a chapter of a global angel investment community specializing in collaborative fundraising.

Stubb’s co-founder/Rhythm Superfoods’ CEO Scott Jensen on why respect for capital, competition is critical to success; how The New Primal founder Jason Burke persevered with his paleo brand despite early missteps; why Hello Delicious is seeking the “middle seat” between healthy and indulgent; Kerry Song croons about her vegan meat brand The Abbot’s Butcher. This episode is presented by The Maple Guild.

Snack brand Square Organics announcement it had closed a $500,000 convertible note opened the curtain on the first investment by retailer Thrive Market as part of their newly developed venture fund, Thrive Market Ventures (TMV).

They’ve been biding their time, but a fast-growing specialty pickle company is preparing to launch a brine-driven assault on Natural Products Expo West this week powered by a new, $4 million minority investment.

Today new snack brand Weller announced the launch of a line of hemp-extract enriched coconut bites as well as the close of a $1.25 million round of funding.