CPB Doubles Down on Rao's, Biologica Debuts with $7M 🧪

GM and Happy Thursday, folks. Here’s what we’re covering this morning:

• Church & Dwight sells VMS brands 💊

• GroundForce backs Righteous Felon 🥩

• Jim Murray launches Anomaly Health 🍊

• Loonen brings transparency to water 💧

• Drumroll lands at Kroger 🍩

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• The Campbell’s Company purchased a 49% interest in La Regina, a scaled manufacturer of tomato-based pasta sauces. Campbell’s will shell out $286M in two tranches for its stake. The acquisition solidifies Campbell’s long-term strategic partnership with La Regina and is expected to fuel Rao’s continued growth. Campbell's originally acquired Sovos Brands, the parent company of Rao's, in 2023 for $2.7B. Food Dive

• Church & Dwight is selling two VMS brands, VitaFusion and Lil Critters, to Piping Rock Health Products for an undisclosed sum. The two VMS brands represent less than 5% of Church & Dwight’s anticipated 2025 net sales. The divestments will enable the company to focus on its power brands and recent acquisitions like Hero Cosmetics, Touchland, and TheraBreath. Business Wire

Fundraising

• Righteous Felon Craft Jerky, a fast-growing purveyor of better-for-you meat snacks, scored a strategic investment from GroundForce Capital (FKA PowerPlant Partners). Brendan Crawley launched Righteous Felon in West Chester, PA in 2013. The company delivered over 100% year-to-date sales growth after securing distribution at Costco, Sam’s Club, Tractor Supply, and other chains. Business Wire

• Biologica, a science-backed hormonal health company, officially launched with $7M in seed funding. Addition led the round while Hawktail, Greycroft, True Beauty Ventures, Good Friends, and a handful of strategic angels followed on. Biologica was co-founded by Joey Zwillinger, the co-founder of Allbirds, and Liz Zwillinger, a former family law attorney. Their packaging is pretty spectacular. PR Newswire

• FirstLook Ventures announced an investment in better-for-you beverage brand Halfday Iced Tea. FirstLook has now deployed just shy of $1.5M across three deals in 2025 (the other two companies being Slate Milk and The Absorption Company). LinkedIn

• WNBA star Paige Bueckers recently joined snack brand Good Eat’n as an equity partner. Chris Paul launched Good Eat’n three years ago and the brand is now available at Walmart, H-E-B, and Gopuff. Bleacher Report

A Message From Matriarch 📈

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Danish hairstylist Sarah Hindsgaul is launching her eponymous haircare brand on January 12th. Hindsgaul Hair will debut with a scalp scrub, hair mask, lightweight mousse, and a dry shampoo in the new year. The minimalist, butter-yellow packaging works really well. Sarah Hindsgaul is best known for being the lead hairstylist on Stranger Things. Business of Fashion

• Jim Murray, a longtime CPG exec and the former CEO of Feastables, is launching an immunity supplement brand called Anomaly Health. The proactive, science-backed daily supplement is designed to ensure that the whole family doesn’t get sick when one member catches something. It’s a clever thesis. LinkedIn

• Polite Society, the color cosmetics brand co-founded by the creators of Too Face, is expanding into skincare on December 21st. The company will launch a face mist called French Rose Milk online and at Ulta Beauty. WWD

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Loonen is a new bottled water brand that’s entirely focused on purity, transparency, and third party testing. The company offers two water products — Still and Sparkling — which are spring sourced, filtered for contaminants, tastefully mineralized, rigorously tested by third parties, and exclusively bottled in glass. The team and founders are also really impressive. Loonen was co-founded by Clara Sieg, an Operating Partner at Revolution Ventures, and David Kimmell, the former Chief Supply Chain Officer at Lemon Perfect and SVP of Ops at Spindrift. Bullish. Loonen

• London-based All Things Butter repositioned itself as All Things Dairy and expanded into a new category, cottage chese. Three cottage cheese variants will begin rolling out across the UK in January. LinkedIn

• Empress 1908 Gin, an ultra-premium spirits brand, just released a non-alcoholic variety called Empress 1908 0.0 Indigo. Empress 1908 was acquired by Milestone Brands in 2022 after the brand exceeded 200,000 cases. PR Newswire

• BrewDog is launching a “functional” alcohol-free beer brand called Mello. The NA beer is infused with magnesium and comes in two flavors: Peach & Passionfruit and Lime & Mint. Mello will debut at Tesco in the UK in January. FoodBev

• Ballerina Farm reformulated and relaunched its Farmer Jerky line. The product is made with 100% grass-fed beef and just five ingredients. Each bag contains 40g of protein, 0g of sugar, and no nitrates. The packaging is pretty great too. Ballerina Farm

• Khloud Foods is expanding its protein popcorn range with a new flavor: Cinnamon Roll. The new flavor will debut tomorrow. Instagram

• Byte’m Brownie Bites just unveiled a killer new brand identity. Instagram

Data 🖥️

• Salt & Stone, the premium personal care brand, expects to surpass $140M in annual revenue by the end of the year. Fun fact: Salt & Stone originally launched as an SPF brand in 2017 before pivoting to clean deodorant in 2018. Business of Fashion

Distribution News 🚚

• Pan’s Mushroom Jerky launched at Wegmans.

• Drumroll Snacks launched at 1,200 Kroger stores.

• Superb Bakehouse launched at Roche Bros.

• Flower Knows launched online at Ulta Beauty.