Weekly Headlines: The Future Of ‘Alternatives’ Is Coming To Peanut Butter & CBD

Hi everyone, while a productive July is coming to an end with Springdale officially closing several new deals, onboarding Marissa, and meeting with Tiny’s and Goodles’ founding teams, the future of the ‘alternative’ food market seems to just begin. I am delighted to include some exclusive industry news in our last headlines roundup for the month.

What’s going to happen?

• Voyage Foods, a food tech startup that transforms natural ingredients such as seeds and grains, into nutritionally identical versions of some of our favorite foods, meeting the needs of our shifting world without contributing to industries rife with social and environmental implications. That means… they’re able to create peanut butter without peanuts, coffee without coffee beans, or any solid, non-fibrous food in the world – from foie gras to rice. The firm, which has raised a $5.8 million seed round led by Valor Siren Ventures and Horizon Ventures, is raising series A this summer, leading up to its official consumer launch.

• If you think the news above is groundbreaking, check this one out: Peels has become the first company to produce CBD using orange peels instead of cannabis with zero trace of THC, while delivering the same holistic health benefits. The process, known as “Cyclic Terpene Assembly,” has helped the company raise $4 million in VC investments. Peels can potentially enter many stressful fields of work, like professional sports or first responders, where CBD has traditionally been banned due to unregulated amounts of THC found in many hemp-based CBD products that can be detected by periodic drug testing.

• and… more IPOs in the consumer space: Dole Packaged Foods intends to raise $559 million from an initial public offering of 26 million shares priced between $20 to $23. The company is reportedly planning to begin trading under the DOLE ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.

Who’s raising money?

• GoPuff, the “instant” grocery delivery startup that has been on an acquisition and expansion tear in the last several months to scale its business, has reportedly filed papers in Delaware to raise up to $1 billion at a $14 billion pre-money valuation, $15 billion post-money.

• Selfmade, a startup supporting the mind with beauty merchandise and digital resources, has raised more than $1 million to spread its message of normalizing regular therapeutic practices to a broader set of diverse consumers. Its pre-seed investors include Michael Mente, co-founder and CEO of Revolve, Calais Campbell, a football player on the Baltimore Ravens, Nancy-Ann DeParle, former deputy chief of staff for policy under President Barack Obama, Robert Bianchini, former VP of research, engineering and innovation at Rodan + Fields, Sarah Plimpton Liebowitz, CEO of Sustainable Botanicals Intl., Johnnie Yu, intern at Listen, Ashwin Navin, CEO and co-founder of Samba TV, and Andrea Mokros, EVP and chief public affairs officer at Fairview Health Services. Quite impressive indeed!

• Food tech company NotCo announced today that it has raised $235 million in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global, bringing its total financing to over $350 million to date. The funding will help the plant-based milk and meat producer to launch its food products in the U.S. and scale its proprietary AI technology platform.

• Actual Veggies, which offers a line of chef crafted, colorful veggie burgers made with ingredients including black beans, carrot, broccoli, and beet, has just closed a $2.8 million financing round after experiencing high e-commerce growth, and it plans to expand across U.S. brick-and-mortar retailers in 2021.

Who’s on the move?

• Renowned food & beverage executive Peter Burns, who was most recently the CEO of ONE Brands and led its sale to Hershey, has joined Sunrise Strategic Partners as a Managing Partner. The Boulder, CO-based accelerator of emerging brands, which has helped Kodiak Cakes scale until its recent acquisition by L Catterton, and Vital Farms’ IPO in 2020, has also received new funding from its partner Trilantic North America, in addition to promoting Nick Mole to Principal.

Have a wonderful weekend, and see you all in August!!