Investment

Food tech platform Voyage Foods closed a $36 million funding round last week that will help bring its full slate of innovations – including peanut-free peanut butter, cacao-free chocolate and coffee-free coffee – to consumers by the end of the year.

Food and beverage company Tomorrow Farms announced today the closing of $8.5 million in funding aimed at supporting its first product launch this summer and attracting ingredient companies with which it can partner to bring its technologies to market.

Investment firm Stride Consumer Partners announced today the close of their first fund at $420 million to further invest in brands developing consumer products and services. To-date, Strive has made three investments in meat snacks producer Chomps, Canadian skin-care company Skinfix, and clothing company Truewerk.

In this week’s The Checkout: Nowadays raises $7 million to scale plant-based chicken nugget tech; Gerber launches new baby food line with a focus on plant-based protein; functional food category see new entry, Adapto Foods; and Halo Top reformulates and adds new flavor.

As it looks to a commercial rollout of cultivated chicken later this year, pending regulatory review, cell-grown meat, poultry and seafood brand UPSIDE Foods announced $400 million in new funding, bringing its total capital raised to-date to over $1 billion.

In this week’s Checkout: SnackMagic launches data platform CPGpulse, General Mills invests $15 million for minority and female entrepreneurs, Misfits Market launches private label line and Evol introduces carbon neutral frozen meal line.

Female PoC-owned sparkling water brand Droplet activated a crowdfunding campaign this month on NuAMP, a new platform dedicated to connecting PoC founders with various forms of capital. Created in collaboration with community fundraising platform NuMarket and AMP, a tech company connecting PoC founders with funding resources, the NuAMP program debuted with seven active crowdfunding campaigns to support diverse founders across the country

Specialty food and home goods producer Stonewall Kitchen has once again traded owners, with private equity firm TA Associate announcing on Monday it has taken a majority stake in the company “alongside the company’s management team.” Concurrently, former investor Audax announced that it had exited the business.

Something is brewing and it isn’t just sauerkraut. A new company, Fermented Food Holdings, Inc. (FFH), has big plans for the fermented foods set, announcing Friday it had acquired two stalwarts of the category, Katalina Holdings (the makers of Bubbies) and Wildbrine, as it seeks to build out a larger platform of fermented products

Dairy brand Good Culture has taken another step towards its goal of becoming a cultured foods platform, announcing today the closing of a $64 million funding round that will support retail and product expansion this year.