Category: 2024

Crown Affair Secures $9M to expand prestige haircare brand
Crown Affair, a clean haircare brand, raised $9 million in Series B funding led by True Beauty Ventures, which has invested in the brand four times. This round brings total funding to $16 million across five rounds. Crown Affair projects $20 million in revenue and profitability this year, up from $8 million in 2023. The funds will support growth at Sephora, product expansion and team development.

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Klim secures $27.6M to scale regenerative agriculture solutions
Berlin, Germany-based startup Klim has raised $27.6 million in Series A funding, marking Germany’s largest agtech Series A of 2024. Founded in 2020, Klim provides a digital platform empowering over 3,500 farmers—managing 700,000 hectares (5% of German farmland)—to adopt regenerative practices. The funding, led by BNP Paribas with participation from Earthshot Ventures, Rabobank and others, will support international expansion, platform upgrades and a financial services component to accelerate adoption.

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Innovative Food Holdings acquires Golden Organics for $1.75M
Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (IVFH), a gourmet food distributor, has acquired Golden Organics, a Denver, Colorado-based organic food distributor, for $1.75 million. The transaction, comprising $1.4 million in cash and a $350,000 five-year seller’s note, includes Golden Organics’ inventory and physical assets. Founded in 1994 by David Rickard, Golden Organics serves more than 200 U.S. customers, primarily in Denver, including restaurants, manufacturers and retailers. With over 800 certified organic products, Golden Organics will broaden IVFH’s offerings and improve sourcing cost efficiencies by about 40% on certain overlapping items.

Taeshaud Jackson, a Denver native with food distribution experience, will lead Golden Organics as president. IVFH aims to leverage Golden Organics’ customer base and product portfolio through cross-selling and integrating distribution channels, particularly for drop-shipping. Bi-directional synergies, enhanced by a unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and warehouse system, are expected to drive long-term growth and profitability for IVFH’s expanded platform. Steptoe & Johnson served as legal counsel for the acquisition.

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Diageo juices booze-free portfolio with Ritual Zero Proof purchase
Diageo North America has acquired Ritual Zero Proof, a leading non-alcoholic spirits brand, as part of its strategy to tap into the growing demand for alcohol-free alternatives. Ritual, launched in 2019 by founders David Crooch, Marcus Sakey and GG Sakey, offers non-alcoholic substitutes for whiskey, tequila, gin and other spirits. The acquisition supports Diageo’s broader “Growth Ambition” strategy to invest in high-potential, emerging categories. Non-alcoholic beverages have grown rapidly, with a 31% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in retail sales over five years, and non-alcoholic spirits represent the fastest-growing segment in this space.

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Ecovative raises $28M to expand MyBacon growth and launch new mycelium leather brand
Ecovative, a New York-based mycelium technology company, has raised $28 million in a growth equity round, bringing its total funding to $145 million since 2019. This funding will expand the production and distribution of MyBacon, a plant-based meat product, from 600 to thousands of stores by 2025. Additionally, Ecovative plans to introduce AirLoom hides, a sustainable leather alternative, under its Forager brand. Ecovative uses a proprietary technology called AirMycelium to cultivate mushroom strains that the company then leverages for manufacturing different products.

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Startup De Novo Foodlabs nets $1.5M for its precision fermentation tech
Joyful Ventures, a VC firm that invests in alternative proteins, led a $1.5 million seed round for North Carolina-based De Novo Foodlabs. The company’s precision fermentation technology produces animal-free lactoferrin, a compound traditionally found in animal milk. The fresh investment takes De Novo’s total investment to $4 million. Joyful Ventures launched last year with $23 million from alternative protein leaders like Oatly co-founder Björn Öste, the co-founder of Shiok Meats Sandhya Sriram and Wild Earth CEO Ryan Bethencourt. De Novo Foodlabs’ new round will help commercialize the technology. Its first ingredient, NanoFerrin, is an iron-rich whey protein offering a range of potential health benefits.

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Pluri Inc. invests $10 million in cultivated meat company Ever After Foods
Pluri Inc, a joint owner with Tnuva Food-Tech Incubator of Ever After Foods, has invested $10 million in Ever After Foods to advance the company’s cultivated meat program. The bioreactors that Ever After Foods uses to produce muscle and fat tissues from animal cells are powered by Pluri’s technology. The technology could multiply the production of protein by six times and lipids by 700 times per cell and lead to increased capacity for meat cultivation.

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Plant-based milk leader Califia Farms buys plant-milk dispenser system Uproot Inc.
Califia, a prominent plant-based milk manufacturer, has purchased Uproot Inc, a company that manufactures turnkey plant-based milk dispensing systems. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition of Uproot, which operates more than 150 plant-milk dispensers in college campuses and other venues, allows Califia to expand its Away From Home portfolio. Uproot’s technology brings easy-to-dispense plant milk to dining settings, while simultaneously mitigating packaging waste. The entire Uproot team will be joining Califia.

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