Investment
Dive into the latest stories, interviews, and discussions relating to investment, funding, and mergers and acquisitions throughout the natural food industry. Explore what the financial future looks like for natural food entrepreneurs in terms of capital availability, deal terms, lending, and the strategic marketplace in order to help shape your planning strategy for the short and medium term.
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Featured Investment Content
Smash Foods Raises $18M With L Caterton Backing
Smash Foods has secured $18 million in a Series A funding round led by L Catterton, with participation from The Family Fund and Eclair Ventures.
Peppertux Raises $2.35M to Fuel Retail Expansion
Can America’s appetite for pistachios extend beyond the viral Dubai chocolate trend? The founders of Southern California startup Peppertux – along with their new investors and retail partners – are betting on it.
Starco Brands Acquires Custom Bakehouse
Starco Brands announced today it has acquired manufacturing powerhouse Custom Bakehouse. The transaction will support the company’s vision to build an “fully integrated” CPG platform.
Additional Content
Post Investment, GeeFree Bakes Up Success
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 Brands Look to Small in Recent Deals
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:
Innovation Fueling 15 Most Well-Funded Startups
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.
Why DiCaprio and Strand Hopped to Invest in Hippeas
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.
Peeled Snacks Raises Capital for Produce Derived Snacking
Last week, plant-based snack brand Peeled Snacks announced the close of a round of fundraising led by Seurat Capital. Investment bank Whipstitch Capital served as an advisor to Peeled for the deal.
Investors See Green with R.e.d.d.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but an April 2016 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated the company had closed roughly $850,000 of a $1.5 million round. The Portland, Maine-based brand previously raised $1 million in Spring 2016.
Verde Farms Acquires Estancia Beef
The acquisition is a natural next step in expanding Verde Farms’ offerings nationwide while maintaining the integrity of their founding values of healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy and delicious beef. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Dean Foods Returns to Plant-Based Products with Good Karma Investment
Today dairy processor and distributor Dean Foods announced a minority investment in Boulder, Colorado based Good Karma, a producer of flaxseed-based, dairy alternative food and beverage products. Originally a private label manufacturer of dairy-alternative milks, Good Karma developed its own branded CPG line in 2014 and expanded beyond beverages to yogurt in late 2016.
Soylent Raises $50M in Venture Capital Funding
The nutrient-dense meal replacement drinks and powder company has pulled in some Silicon Valley-grade investors, closing out a Series B financing round today with $50 million in funding, led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), bringing the company’s total funding to $74.5 million.
Venice Brands Makes First Investment in Osso Good
This week Venice Brands, a new consumer-focused VC fund, announced an investment in The Osso Good Company, a producer of frozen bone broths. In addition to putting dry powder behind the bone broth company, the deal marks the first investment for Venice, which was launched in January of this year and is an offshoot of Monogram Capital.