In This Issue:
- Food Venture Financing Trends
- CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Funds
- Links to Relevant Content and Events
Food Venture Financing Trends
- Nexus W2V, a sustainable waste-to-value startup, announced that it raised $140 million in investments.
- Planet A Foods, a cocoa-free chocolate emerging brand, announced that it raised $30 million in its Series B round.
- Gavan Technologies, a plant protein-based fat solution foodtech company, raised $8 million in funding.
- Luyef, a Chilean biotech startup that develops cellular agriculture, received $1.25 million in grant funding.
CPG Corporate Venture and Private Equity Fund
This week’s featured corporate venture and private equity fund is Nutrition Capital Network.
- Nutrition Capital Network (NCN) connects investors with high-potential growth companies.
- NCN brings together active investors with curated health, wellness, and ingredient companies that are looking for capital, partnerships, or acquisitions.
- NCN hosts five Investor Meetings each year, where selected companies give live presentations about their businesses to a group of active industry investors and mentors.
- Representative NCN Investors include:
- The Coca-Cola Company
- Abbott Nutrition
- Abrams & Company
- Allergy Research Group
- Bimbo Bakeries USA
- NCN uses the following criteria to evaluate potential Presenting Companies (for details, see Selection Criteria | Nutrition Capital Network):
- Novelty and Unique Position
- Insulation
- Economic Potential
- The Management Team
- Tangibles: Good branding or brand name, good quality & taste, unique packaging or presentation
- Intangibles: The “WOW” factor; head turning potential
Links to Relevant Content and Events
ARTICLES
- Where is the Food Tech Sector Headed? Cocoa and Coffee Alternatives Provide a Clue
- CULT Food Science Targets Mycelium and Hybrid Alternatives with Acquisition of The Better Butchers (Canada)
- Marine Biologics Acquires Biochemical Engineering Leader Spoitz Enterprises
- Ahold Delhaize USA and The Campbell’s Company Launch Regenerative Agriculture Pilot to Reduce Scope 3 Emissions Associated with Potato Farming
- UC Davis Spinoff One Bio raises $27 Million Series A to Bridge the Fiber Gap
UPCOMING EVENTS
Naturally New England
Members Exclusive Online Workshop: How to Get More B2B Sales on Faire
Tuesday, January 14 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET
Join Moni Kupczak Ainslie founder of Koopslie as she presents strategies to succeed on the Faire Platform.
If you copied your Shopify store over to Faire and left it at that, you're missing out on sales.
Think of Faire like Amazon. To succeed, you need to show up in search, get the click, and convert. But unlike Amazon or Shopify - you're dealing with retailers, not consumers, so you need a completely different angle - one that's focused on the retailer. Here's what you'll learn in this free training:
- How to transform your Faire store into a high-converting, sales-on-repeat machine
- How to catch the attention of new buyers and drive more reorders from existing accounts
- How to show up in search, stand out, get the click and convert to more sales
- The most effective advertising and marketing strategies on Faire
- How to use your new Faire store to grow on other B2B marketplaces for CPG brands
Naturally North Bay
2025 Legal Update for HR Professionals
Tuesday, January 21 | 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PT
Tune in to Naturally North Bay's lunch time Human Resources Forum, where their guest speakers will share insight into new employment laws. This legal update, presented by Marissa Buck from Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty and Sarah Hirschfeld-Sussman from CMPR Law, will provide this information with our entire Naturally North Bay membership to ensure your human resource management team is up to date for 2025.
Speakers:
- Marissa Buck, Partner at Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty Law
- Sarah Hirschfeld-Sussman, Attorney at CMPR
Naturally San Diego
Pre-Party for the UNFI Show, presented by Modifly
Tuesday, January 21 | 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. PT
Location: Venue808, 808 J St., San Diego, CA
Join Naturally San Diego for an exclusive evening of networking and celebration, presented by Modifly. Connect with 20+ buyers, UNFI staff and leading natural product brands from across the country while enjoying food and drinks before the show starts.
BevNET will be on site with a live media activation. Stay tuned on details for how your brand can be interviewed 1x1 by Ray Latif, Producer and Editor of Taste Radio.