E.l.f. Beauty Acquires Rhode for $1B 📈

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CPG WIRE
May 29, 2025

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Here’s what we’re covering this morning:

  • B&G divests brands 🍅

  • True Beauty backs Jupiter 💰

  • Mike’s Hot Honey x Burt’s Bees collab 🐝

  • One Trick Pony reveals refresh 💯

  • Cadence heads to Australia 💧

E.l.f. Beauty Acquires Rhode for $1B 📈

Blockbuster beauty deals might be back thanks to the unlikely pairing of e.l.f. Beauty and Hailey Bieber. Yesterday, e.l.f. Beauty announced that it was acquiring Rhode — the skincare brand that Hailey Bieber launched in 2022 — for $1B.

The deal includes $800M of cash & stock along with a potential earnout of $200M. For e.l.f. Beauty, this is their largest and most ambitious acquisition to date. Their last acquisition came in 2023 when they purchased masstige skincare brand Naturium for $355M.

The rise of Rhode has been swift and impressive. Rhode debuted in 2022 and after only three years they surpassed $210M in net sales. More impressively, they pulled it off with only 10 SKUs and one distribution channel (DTC).

This is an interesting deal for a few different reasons. First, it signals that e.l.f. Beauty is moving upmarket. E.l.f. Beauty became a $5B beauty juggernaut by selling $8 color cosmetics and $12 skincare products at Walmart and Target. Now, with the acquisition of Rhode, they’re graduating to $38 moisturizers and $18 lip balms that will soon retail at Sephora.

Second, it signals a possible end to the beauty M&A drought. Despite a surge in dealmaking in food, beverage, and supplements, beauty has languished for 18 months. 2023 was a banner year for beauty M&A. L’Oreal acquired Aesop for $2.5B, Shiseido purchased Dr. Dennis Gross for $450M, and Unilever acquired K18 for an undisclosed sum. It’s largely been crickets since then though.

Now that a scrappy upstart like e.l.f. Beauty has scored a prized asset like Rhode, perhaps the beauty majors will be compelled by FOMO to start buying again. After all, Glossier, Merit Beauty, Kosas, Rare Beauty, and Makeup by Mario are all running processes.

More on the transaction here.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • MeliBio, a Bay Area-based producer of alternative honey products, was acquired by FoodYoung Labs, a Swiss innovation lab and venture studio. MeliBio was founded in 2020 by Darko Mandich and Dr. Aaron Schaller. The company is best known for its bee-free honey brand, Mellody, and for their collaborations with Eleven Madison Park. AgFunderNews

  • B&G Foods is selling Don Pepino and Sclafani — two Italian pantry staples brands — to Violet Foods for an undisclosed sum. With their share price at a 5-year-low, B&G Foods is divesting the brands in order to focus on its core portfolio and to pay down debt. Violet Foods is a newly formed portfolio company of Amphora Equity Partners. Most of the major food conglomerates are eager to shed underperforming brands. Unilever has already divested a number of smaller European brands while Kraft Heinz is on the verge of trimming its brand portfolio. Food Business News

Fundraising

  • True Beauty Ventures invested in Jupiter, a scalp care brand that launched in 2020. Other investors include Melitas Ventures, Willow Growth Partners, Springdale Ventures, and a handful of others. Jupiter was co-founded by Robbie Salter, Ross Goodhart, and Alexa Adler. LinkedIn

  • Seal the Seasons, a North Carolina-based purveyor of frozen fruit and smoothie kits, secured a strategic investment from Canada’s Farnell Packaging. Seal the Seasons currently distributes its products at over 4,000 doors across the U.S. Specialty Food Association

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • The licensing potential of Mike’s Hot Honey knows no bounds. The hot honey maker partnered with Burt’s Bees to release a limited edition lip balm: Burt’s Bees x Mike’s Hot Honey Moisturizing Lip Balm. Very fun collab. Burt’s Bees

  • After getting booted from Equinox early last year, Kiehl’s is back with a new partnership with Life Time. Moving forward, Kiehl’s personal care products will be available at Life Time locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Cut

  • D.S. & DURGA released its first men’s fragrance line. Three scents are available: Golf Jazz, Grey Blazer, and Rum Bay Rum. Beauty-focused investment firm Manzanita Capital acquired D.S. & DURGA in early 2024. GQ

  • Skincare brand Dieux unveiled their newest product — Ethereal Cleansing Oil. The new SKU is available via their website and at Sephora. Instagram

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • IQBAR collaborated with culinary icon Thomas Keller on two exclusive products: Salted Caramel Chip IQBAR and Yuzu Mango IQMIX. This is IQBAR’s first collaboration so props for landing the man behind The French Laundry. 10% of all sales will benefit Ment’or, a non-profit organization. PR Newswire

  • Phorm Energy — the new energy drink line from Anheuser-Busch, 1st Phorm, and Dana White — officially launched nationwide yesterday. The beverage is formulated with natural caffeine from green tea, electrolytes, and a blend of ingredients to support mental focus. Bullish on Phorm Energy. Anheuser-Busch

  • Afterdream is a new THC beverage brand from Morgan McLachlan, the co-founder of De Soi and AMASS Botanics. The beverage features THC, CBD, Lion’s Mane Extract, and L-Theanine. They nailed the branding. Love the regal imagery and the burgundy and gold color combo. PR Newswire

  • Premium peanut butter brand One Trick Pony unveiled a refreshed brand identity and a novel inverted jar. The inverted jar is a nice touch aesthetically speaking but it actually solves an important problem: natural peanut butters don’t contain stabilizers so the oils and butter often separate, meaning consumers have to stir and make a mess. The inverted jar helps mitigate separation. The Dieline

  • Functional snack brand Legendary is launching a high-protein donut line with four flavors: Cinnamon Crumble, Chocolate Dipped, Pink Sprinkle, and Vanilla Glazed. The donuts are packaged in 2-counts and each donut contains 10g of protein. Stack3d

Data 🖥️

  • Kraft Heinz is busy preparing for the future. The multinational food company is investing $3B to upgrade its factories across the U.S. This is the largest such investment in over a decade. Kraft Heinz is also undergoing a strategic review and could shed some assets or go on a buying spree. Manufacturing Dive

Distribution News 🚚