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

Asian-inspired food brand Nona Lim announced Monday the closing of a $3 million round of funding. Led by Harbinger Ventures, the round also included Echo Capital Group, Navama & Kouffman LCC, CircleUp and Cambridge Companies SPG as investors

Last week, the NOSH team trekked through a real-life Candy Land during the 20th annual Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois, in search of the latest trends in treats– and now they’re sharing their findings with the BevNET podcast.

GeeFree was founded in 2013 by partners Susan Hougui, a food consultant, and Steven Leyva, a baker. The duo baked the business from there, growing the company to about $500,000 in sales in its second year. Then in March 2017, Billy Procida, founder of the multi-billion dollar real estate investment group Procida Funding & Advisors, invested $1 million dollars for half the company. Now post investment, the company said it’s already seeing a tenfold increase in its month-to-month sales from March to May thanks in part to a new COO and a ramped-up marketing campaign.

Big strategics looked to both invest and acquire in the past two weeks, looking to a fund, a coffee company, and a delivery platform for revenue expansion. Here’s a look at the deals:

A list compiled by market research firm CB Insights of the 15 most well-funded venture capital-backed food and beverage startups reveals the increasing value placed on brands that are offering healthier choices and disrupting established categories like meat and dairy and innovating with plant-based offerings.

At this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois, Mars Chocolate, Wrigley, Nestlé, Ferrero, Lindt, Ghirardelli, Russell Stover and Ferrara Candy Company highlighted their new pledge to educate consumers about the portions and calorie counts of their treats. The five-year plan, led by the National Confectioners Association (NCA) and Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), recognizes that while candy is “always a treat,” sweets can still fit into a healthy lifestyle.

From patent restrictions and investor complaints to false labeling claims, these are the cases creating — or aiming to clean up — messy food dealings.

At the 2017 Sweets and Snacks Expo this week in Chicago, Illinois legume-based snacking brand HIPPEAS booth was pulsing with excitement – both due to the brand’s popularity in retail, but also thanks to the announcement that Strand Equity Partners and Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio have joined as investors.

NOSH LIVE || Banza pasta co-founder Brian Rudolph will speak at NOSH Live on June 12 at the Metropolitan West in New York, NY. Rudolph started Banza at the young age of 23 with his brother, Scott, crafting a product in sync with several popular trends in the industry: high-protein, plant-based, and gluten-free.

At this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois, Nathan Rigby, One Click Retail’s Vice President of E-Commerce, led a presentation about Amazon’s purchasing power. Data shows that one of the largest growth opportunities for the online retailer is in the candy and snack space.

NOSH Live will take place on June 12 at the Metropolitan West in Manhattan and will address growth investments for companies in fast-growth mode that are sure to offer strong returns. With deal breakdowns and plans for growth, the agenda for NOSH Live is a lively list of speakers and panels designed to give attendees strong strategic advantages as they attack their specific categories.

The image of the bonneted girl in red has adorned the Voortman Cookies logo since the company, now Voortman’s Bakery, started making it’s cookies and wafers over 60 years ago. Though a lot has changed since then, including new ownership, a new look, new recipes and a renewed focus on natural, the Dutch girl has remained

This month, The Food Corridor, an online database for food and beverage businesses to connect with commercial assets, and the Network for Incubator and Commissary Kitchens surveyed 38 kitchens, representing over 1,000 businesses. About 66 percent of those participants said their business areas do not have a standardized definition for shared-use kitchens

This month chocolate brand Taza Chocolate launched its first snacking product, Dark Bark, in Whole Foods Markets nationwide. The brand will highlight the bark at this week’s Sweets and Snacks Expo.