Investment

Global confection leader Nestle announced this week that it has agreed to acquire Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations, the parent company of functional food and supplement brand Garden of Life, for $2.3 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to close early next year.

Mexico-based Arca Continental, the parent company of Wise Snacks and the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America, announced on Monday that it is acquiring mission-driven chip producer Deep River Snacks.

Today, global confectionery and snack leader Mars Inc. announced it was acquiring a minority stake in healthy snack brand KIND. According to The New York Times, the deal values KIND at more than $4 billion and could potentially lead to KIND’s future acquisition by the global company.

The Salem, Mass.-based company announced last week that it acquired five-year-old Cocoa Santé, an all-natural line of organic hot cocoa mixes with a budding presence in grocery. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Yesterday, protein-centric brand Powerful announced the close of a $4 million round. The capital is a combination of equity investment from River Hollow Partners and asset based lending (ABL) financing through Gerber Finance. Currently the Miami, Florida-based producer of Powerful Yogurt and Powerful drinks, as well as an emerging product, high-protein Powerful Oatmeal, is in over 10,000 points of sale, including select Walmart, Target and Kroger stores.

A week after finalizing the purchase of meat alternative company Sweet Earth, Nestlé USA today announced it’s widening its coffee portfolio with the acquisition of Chameleon Cold-Brew for an undisclosed sum.

Two coffee-forward brands are getting a jolt after receiving investments. Eat Your Coffee, an energy bar company using coffee as an ingredient and as its caffeine source, and Alpine Start, a maker of instant coffee, both announced last week that they raised funds.

The Software as a Service (SaaS) provider announced last month that it received a $4.25 million investment from mission-based venture capital firm Renewal Funds. It follows an undisclosed 2015 investment in the provider of traceability, food safety and supply chain transparency software.

When your company sells for millions just three years after its inception, you must have done something right. For Peter Rahal, RxBar co-founder, president and CEO, that success was directly tied to one thing: never thinking about selling his company.

While specialty baking ingredients and inclusions provider Parker Products may specialize in short-term production runs, the Riverside Company is betting on the business as a time-honored investment.