Kettle & Fire Partners With Colter Ventures 🍗

Author

CPG WIRE
March 01, 2025

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

  • MNG buys WellBeing Brewing 🍻

  • Wandering Bear grabs funding ☕️

  • Starface expands lineup 🌟

  • Tosi drops brand refresh 💯

  • Poppi stays hot 📈

Kettle & Fire Partners With Colter Ventures 🍗

Kettle & Fire, the nation’s leading bone broth brand, partnered with Colter Ventures on a $43M secondary buyout. The deal with Colter serves two purposes: 

  • Provides liquidity to Kettle & Fire’s early investors 

  • Establishes a new structure that aligns founders, operators, and investors to unlock Kettle & Fire’s next phase of growth 

Founded in 2015 by brothers Justin & Nick Mares, Kettle & Fire sells a variety of bone broths, cooking broths, and soups at over 50,000 points of distribution across the U.S. The brand was an early mover and brought a better-for-you, sustainable spin to the category. Kettle & Fire has also benefited from several health and wellness trends lately, highlighted by organic endorsements from the likes of Joe Rogan and Dana White. 

According to Brian Hack, the CEO of Kettle & Fire, “Kettle & Fire was in an excellent position for a transaction like this. The early investors were fantastic partners who helped lay a strong foundation. Looking ahead, we believe Kettle & Fire has the potential to become a multi-hundred-million-dollar platform, and this investor base is perfectly aligned to help achieve that vision.”

Colter Ventures, which was founded by former RXBAR COO Sam McBride, has a long history of partnering with brands and facilitating sustained growth. In addition to Kettle & Fire, Colter is also an investor in MUSH, Muddy Bites, OLIPOP, Cure Hydration, Open Water, and many other brands. 


More on the transaction here.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s, are reportedly interested in purchasing the ice cream brand from Unilever. Unilever said they’re not interested in selling the brand — they’d prefer to spin off their entire ice cream division — but I imagine they could be convinced to sell Ben & Jerry’s for the right price due to the occasional PR headaches associated with the brand. Bloomberg

  • Boyne Capital, a Miami-based private equity firm, acquired a stake in Blue Monkey Beverages. Founded in 2009 and based in Vancouver, Blue Monkey is manufacturer of sparkling tropical fruit juice beverages and coconut water products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. PR Newswire

  • MNG Brands has acquired WellBeing Brewing Company, a Missouri-based producer of non-alcoholic beer. MNG Brands is the owner of CBD Kratom, an independent retailer with 50 locations across the U.S. MNG plans to leverage WellBeing’s beverage expertise to produce THC-infused beverages. PR Newswire

Fundraising

  • According to an SEC filing, probiotic supplement brand BIOHM secured $1.5M in equity funding from undisclosed investors. Founded in 2016 and based in Cleveland, BIOHM is available nationwide at Walmart. SEC

  • Wandering Bear, a New York-based producer of branded cold brew products, raised an additional $4M in equity funding from undisclosed investors. Wandering Bear was recently recognized as one of the fastest-growing brands on Instacart. SEC 

  • KoRo, a German purveyor of healthy food & beverage products, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kharis Capital, a Belgian private equity firm. KoRo previously raised €35M from Coefficient Capital and a number of other firms in November. FinSMEs

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Warby Parker is preparing to open five stores at Target later this year. The store-within-a-store concept has worked really well for Ulta Beauty at Target, and I reckon it’ll perform well for Warby Parker too. Target

  • Starface continues to grow its lineup with two skincare products: a cleanser and a moisturizer. Starface expanded beyond pimple patches with a lip balm range last summer. Instagram

  • Fable & Mane launched a new hair mask product that apparently smells exactly like chai. Hypebae

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Talking Rain Beverage Company is entering the prebiotic soda race with Popwell. The branding is pretty slick and each can contains 6g of fiber and only 1g of sugar. Talking Rain is best known for owning Sparkling Ice, the beverage brand that did more than $1B in sales last year. Josh Mohr made a few points about Popwell on Twitter 👇 Trend Hunter

  • Clean snack brand Tosi unveiled a whole new brand identity ahead of Expo West. Their previous packaging was a little sterile so this colorful rebrand is a big win for the brand. Tosi raised $15M and appointed a new CEO in December. PR Newswire

  • Yo Mama’s Foods, a fast-growing purveyor of pasta sauces and salad dressings, is launching a high-protein, high-fiber pasta range soon. NOSH

  • Chilled oat bar brand Mooski just dropped a fantastic brand refresh. The updated packaging has superior product photography and is more playful than the previous iteration. NOSH

  • Rapper Lil Yachty just launched a tequila seltzer brand called Yacht Water (excellent name; not sure how the trademark was still available). Lil Yachty partnered with music exec Coach K and Sneaky Pete Spirits to launch the brand. The branding is fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. As we’ve seen with Surfside, High Noon, and The Finnish Long Drink, you can build a pretty damn big business in the RTD cocktail category. Hypebeast

  • Brent Rivera, a popular YouTuber with over 37M subscribers, launched a new snack brand called LEVELS. The snack is described as a “4D Flavored Chip.” Interact Brands designed the branding and packaging. Instagram

  • MALK Organics launched two new alternative dairy products: Organic Coconut MALK and Organic Soy MALK. Both SKUs will be available at Whole Foods Market shortly. PR Newswire

  • Performance nutrition brand Cadence is launching a nutrition bar line. Cadence launched with an RTD hydration line in 2024 then expanded into hydration drink mixes. They’re quickly becoming a full-stack performance nutrition brand. Instagram

Data 🖥️

  • Better-for-you soda brand Poppi continues to grow very fast. For the four weeks through February 8th, volume shot up 118%. Monster. Twitter

  • According to Dan McCormick, creatine usage has grown 4x in the past 5 years. Twitter

  • An interesting snapshot of Monster Beverage annual case volume from 2002 until 2024. Wild. Twitter

Distribution News 🚚

  • Skincare brand Dr. Idriss is now shipping to the EU.

  • Organic yogurt brand Painterland Sisters launched at Costco in NorCal.

  • RTD hydration brand Corpse Reviver launched at Earth Fare.

  • MOSS launched at BevMo, Gopuff, and MOM’s Organic Market.