Experiment Closes Seed Round, Firehook Bakery Acquired 🍞

GM and Happy Saturday, folks. If you didn’t read our Q1 Consumer Review, you can download it here. It’s a 26-page summary of the biggest news in Food, Beverage, Beauty, and Wellness from Q1 of 2024. If you’re crazy about consumer brands, you’ll enjoy it.

Anyways, we have a lot to cover so let’s dive into the newsletter:

• West Lane Capital buys Mented 💄

• Bullish backs Bandit Running 🎽

• STORY3 raises $100M 💰

• Bombas expands into footwear 👀

• Nirvana Super refreshes packaging 🔥

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• Forward Consumer Partners, a recently launched private equity firm, acquired a majority stake in Firehook Bakery. Founded in 1992 and based in Virginia, Firehook Bakery is the #1 artisanal crackers brand in the U.S. This is the first acquisition from Forward Consumer Partners who raised $425M for Fund I late last year. Business Wire

• LA-based private equity firm West Lane Capital is acquiring Mented Cosmetics for an undisclosed sum. Mented is a black-owned makeup brand that was co-founded by KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson in 2017. The brand retail at Ulta Beauty and Target. Earlier this month, West Lane Capital acquired professional haircare brand SEVEN. Beauty Independent

• Next Century Spirits purchased a number of brand assets from Southwest Spirits & Wine. Brands included in the transaction: Nue Vodka (annual volume of 220K cases), Calamity Gin, Henderson Whiskey, Sixty Men Bourbon, and others. The Spirits Business

• Gregg Renfrew, the co-founder of beauty brand Beautycounter, is acquiring the brand out of foreclosure. Beautycounter launched in 2013 and Carlyle acquired it for $1B in 2021. Business of Fashion

Fundraising

• Skincare brand Experiment raised $3.3M in seed funding. The round was led by Greycroft with additional participation from Press Reset Ventures and others. Lisa Guerrera and Emmy Ketcham co-founded the brand in 2020. WWD

• UK-based MOMO Kombucha raised $1.25M in fresh funding. The brand launched in 2017 and will use the funding to scale its operations. Just Drinks 

• STORY3 Capital Partners, a consumer-focused investment firm, secured an additional $100M for Fund II. Their previous investments include Casa Dragones Tequila, FIGS, Harry’s, and others. SEC

• Consumer investment firm Bullish invested in Bandit Running, a community-centric apparel brand for runners. Bandit was co-founded by Nick West, Tim West, and Ardith Singh in 2020. Bullish

• Daily Dose, a UK-based producer of cold pressed juices, raised another £3M from IW Capital. Daily Dose raised £5M from IW Capital last May. FoodBev

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• TYPEBEA, the high-performance haircare brand founded by Rita Ora and Anna Lahey, officially launched with four products. The branding is stunning and pretty differentiated 👇 TYPEBEA

• Will Perform, the recovery wellness brand founded by Serena Williams, launched three new products: Epsom Salt Bath Soak, Epsom Salt Shower Stick, and Magnesium Body Lotion. Instagram

• Popular sock brand Bombas is expanding into footwear with their new line of indoor/outdoor slide sandals. They look fantastic. Modern Retail

• Kendra Scott announced a new jewelry collaboration with LoveShackFancy. Very on-brand. PR Newswire

• Westman Atelier launched their second skincare product which is called Suprême C. The 100% vitamin C serum boosts brightness and fades dark spots. Like all Westman Atelier products, it’s packaged in a beautiful vessel. Westman Atelier

• Suncare brand Coola is dropping a packaging refresh after 20 years in business. Coola’s previous packaging wasn’t bad, but the latest iteration does a better job of communicating its clean label reputation. Glossy

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Cann, the THC-infused social tonic brand, announced a media partnership with Barstool Sports. The beverage will be featured on a number of popular podcasts like Bussin’ With The Boys and Spittin’ Chiclets. This could be a major coup for the brand. PR Newswire

• Be Good Bakery, the sports nutrition brand founded by fitness influencer Will Tennyson, launched a protein powder and the packaging is unbelievably good. Twitter

• HMB and electrolyte-infused beverage brand Nirvana Super is rolling out a packaging refresh. It’s difficult to get a close look at the packaging but from a distance it looks like an improvement. Instagram

• New York-based Morgenstern’s collaborated with Doobie, a cannabis delivery service, on a limited-edition ice cream called Doobie Scoobie Snacks. Business Wire

Data 🖥️

• Even though revenue growth is slowing at LVMH, perfume, cosmetics, and Sephora are still bright spots for the luxury giant. Perfume & cosmetics grew 7% year-over-year while Sephora posted “remarkable growth.” Business of Fashion

Distribution News 🚚

• BFY candy brand Harken Sweets launched at Walmart.

• Skincare brand Topicals launched at Sephora UK.

• Aura Bora launched their 6 packs at 2,000+ Safeway & Albertsons stores.

• Bivouac Cider is now available at Sprouts in SoCal.

• City Seltzer launched at Sobeys in Canada.

• Adaptogenic beverage brand Odyssey went nationwide at Sprouts.

• Clean fragrance brand Henry Rose launched at Sephora Canada.