D'Amelio Fam Lands $5m 💵

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

• D’Amelio Brands scores $5m 💵

• St. Supéry buys vineyard 🍇

• Two beauty vets launch Ciele 💄

• Jeni’s collabs with Lonely Ghost 👻

• SideDish heads west 🥗

The Big Story 📰

D’Amelio Brands, the multi-brand venture founded by TikTok superstars Charli & Dixie D’Amelio as well their parents, Marc & Heidi, has secured a $5m investment from Fifth Growth Fund as it looks to break into the food and beverage space.

D’Amelio Brands launched into the footwear space earlier this year with D’Amelio Footwear and according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, they plan on launching an acne care brand called ZitsAllRight at some point in the near future.

Their thesis is pretty simple. Instead of leasing out their staggeringly large social media audience to brands like Doc Martens or Neutrogena, the D’Amelio family would rather leverage their massive following to build brands from scratch, then participate in the considerably larger financial windfalls that would follow in the event of an exit. It’s no different than what the Kardashians have been doing with SKIMS, Kylie Cosmetics, Lemme, and 818 Tequila.

Now the D’Amelio family is turning their attention to snacks with the imminent launch of D’Amelio Foods. Though details are scant, we know that a) they plan on launching a snack brand called Be Happy Snacks and b) said brand will likely hit shelves in the fall.

Though this is uncharted territory for D’Amelio Brands, they have some seasoned consumer vets on the cap table to help stick the landing. Serial beverage entrepreneur Lance Collins invested in their $6m seed round alongside Michael Rubin, the co-founder & CEO of Fanatics.

It’ll be interesting to see if the marketplace has room for yet another creator-led food or beverage brand, though. I imagine the answer is yes, but with Chamberlain Coffee, Feastables, Florence By Mills Coffee, Juvee, tbh, and many others already grabbing attention and shelf space, it will be an uphill battle.

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Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery, a Napa Valley-based winery that Chanel purchased in 2015, acquired a 48-acre vineyard in Rutherford, CA. Terms weren’t disclosed. Just Drinks

• German consumer healthcare firm STADA is reportedly exploring possible M&A options. A sale could fetch as much as $11B. STADA generated nearly 3.8B EUR in 2022 primarily by selling OTC pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and vitamins. BioSpace

Fundraising

• Viome Life Sciences, a consumer-facing longevity and preventative health startup, secured $86.5m in Series C funding. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital, and WRG Ventures. Viome also announced that it will launch its Gut Intelligence Test at 200 CVS stores. PR Newswire

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Two veterans of the beauty industry, Nikki DeRoest and Cerre Francis, teamed up to launch Ciele Cosmetics, a makeup brand whose products are reinforced with mineral-based SPF. Ciele launched with three products that will be rolling out at Sephora soon. The packaging is gorgeous. Ciele

• Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, the couple who founded and sold Too Faced to Estee Lauder for $1.4B, will launch their new clean beauty brand, Polite Society, exclusively at Ulta Beauty on 8/27. Instagram 

• Coty, one of the largest beauty companies in the world, has renewed its long-term licensing agreement with adidas. In short, Coty will continue to manufacture and sell beauty and personal care products under the adidas brand for the foreseeable future. Terms weren’t disclosed but these licensing deals can be rather large. Inter-Parfums paid Lacoste €90m up front for their fragrance license in addition to ongoing fees. WWD

• Perfumer H, the unconventional fragrance brand backed by Natura & Co’s venture arm, is preparing to open a new store in Hong Kong on 8/31. Perfumer H opened a store in Taipei earlier this summer, too. Instagram

• LoveShackFancy, the popular apparel brand founded by Rebecca Hessel Cohen in 2013, will launch their first-ever beauty product with a new perfume. The perfume is expected to debut in the fall and will be available at Sephora. WWD

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Jeni’s collaborated with apparel brand Lonely Ghost on its first-ever cookie dough ice cream. Double Dough launches on 8/24 along with a line of merch. Jeni’s 

• Celaya Tequila, a craft tequila brand founded by brothers & USC alums Matt & Ryan Kalil, is now the official tequila of the LA Coliseum and a Proud Partner of USC Athletics. Full Disclosure: they are a client. Business Wire

• The talented folks at Fishwife launched a new product — Slow Smoked Mackerel with Chili Flakes. More stunning packaging from the Fishwife team. Fishwife

• Momofuku Goods introduced two new noodles flavors: Sweet & Spicy Noodles and Spicy Chili Noodles. Apparently Spicy Chili is their spiciest noodle to date. Twitter

Data 🖥️

• The Estée Lauder Companies reported tepid FY results for fiscal 2023 with net sales down 10% to $15.91B. The owner of MAC Cosmetics, Jo Malone, and now Tom Ford partially blamed travel retail and foreign currency transactions. On the bright side, emerging market and fragrance sales were both up double digits. Business Wire

Distribution News 🚚

• SideDish, the salad dressing brand founded by recipe developer Alex Snodgrass, launched at Erewhon, Gelson’s, and Harmons.

• Skincare brand Current State is launching at Walmart later this month.

• Adaptogenic beverage brand Odyssey launched at 7-Eleven and Wegmans.

• Plant powered makeup brand Mango People is now available online at Sephora.