Momofuku Adds To War Chest 💰

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

• Momofuku Goods secures $11.5m 💰

• Nestle acquires Grupo CRM 🍫

• L Catterton bets on professional haircare 📈

• Gatorade gets into the H2O game 💦

• Science, Inc. drops a new brand 🆕

The Big Story 📰

Momofuku Goods, the packaged foods division of chef David Chang’s popular restaurant concept Momofuku, closed an $11.5m round of growth funding led by Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG). Another consumer-focused growth equity firm and an existing investor, Siddhi Capital, also participated.

Though Momofuku Goods launched rather humbly in 2019 with a line of seasoned salts, the company quickly expanded their range of restaurant-grade pantry essentials to include air-dried noodles, chili oils, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. More impressively, Momofuku Goods quickly made the leap from direct-to-consumer to retail, and has established itself as a serious player in the retail channel. Their retail partners now include nationwide firms like Target and Whole Foods Market, as well as dominant regional players like Wegmans.

Behind the rise of Momofuku Goods is their CEO, Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, who originally joined the restaurant group as an intern in 2011. Despite experiencing success right out of the gate — Momofuku Goods reportedly surpassed $1m in revenue in less than 70 days — Mariscal has kept the company laser-focused on iterating, innovating, and delivering high quality, novel products to its customers at increased scale. No easy feat.

Mariscal clearly has ambitious goals for Momofuku Goods, and this round of growth funding, in conjunction with the $17.5m they raised in March, means they have the war chest to realize these ambitions.

More tantalizing than all of the hype about Momofuku Goods is the fact that they’re going after such an enormous market. Though it’s early days, there’s a very real opportunity for Momofuku Goods to become the Rao’s Homemade of Asian pantry staples.

Rao’s Homemade, for the uninitiated, is an Italian pantry staples brand that surpassed $500m in sales last year. It’s also the crown jewel of Sovos Brands’ portfolio which Campbell Soup Company acquired for $2.7B earlier this year.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but Momofuku Goods has a very high ceiling, and one day could be a billion-dollar brand.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• Nestle acquired a majority stake in Grupo CRM, a Brazilian confectionery firm that owns two popular chocolate brands — Kopenhagen and Brasil Cacau. The seller is Advent International who adds another impressive win to their 2023 scorecard. Terms of the deal are vague but local outlets put the purchase price between $600-900m. Reuters

• Consumer private equity firm L Catterton purchased a significant minority interest in Maria Nila, a Stockholm-based professional haircare brand that launched in 1999. Maria Nila’s products are vegan and free of ingredients like parabens and sulfates. Revenue for 2022 was reportedly 45m EUR. Vogue Business

• Amer Sports, the owner of Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson Sporting Goods, and a number of other sports and outdoor brands, filed to go public in the U.S. and could be valued as high as $10B. Amer Sports is majority owned by Chinese sportswear manufacturer Anta Sports. The founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, also owns a chunk of Amer. Front Office Sports

Fundraising

• Currents Jets quarterback and future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers invested in footwear brand Amberjack. Terms weren’t disclosed but Amberjack produces modern, dress-casual footwear for men. Folks like to dunk on Rodgers for his podcast takes but he’s a shrewd consumer investor. Thus far he’s backed Therabody, Hims, Orgain, Super Coffee, Mack Weldon, and others. PR Newswire

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Skylar Beauty, the clean fragrance brand that Starco Brands acquired earlier this year, just launched a new line of hair & body mists. They’ll be available in-store at Sephora starting in October. Business Wire

• Popular Australian apparel brand Princess Polly opened their first-ever store in the U.S. The new store is located at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles. Business Wire

• Gisou, the honey-infused haircare brand that’s backed by Eurazeo, announced that cosmetics veteran Sarah Watts will be its new CEO. Previously Watts held leadership roles at L’Oreal and Charlotte Tilbury. Cosmetics Business

• Skincare brand Doctor Rogers unveiled a sleek, minimalist brand refresh. A vast improvement. Beauty Independent

• Fast fashion retailer Forever 21 partnered with Barneys on a 32-piece capsule collection. Barneys might’ve closed their iconic NYC storefront in 2019, but Authentic Brands Group continues to license the brand in unique ways. Business of Fashion

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Science Inc., the venture firm and startup studio that incubated beverage juggernaut Liquid Death, launched a new brand of sour fruit snacks called Final Boss Sour. The product is basically dried cranberries that come in three different levels of sourness. The retro gaming branding is brilliant and their website is fun, too. NOSH

• Gatorade, the legacy sports drink brand that’s owned by PepsiCo, will launch a new bottled water line early next year. The branding is pretty great IMO. Gatorade is under pressure from upstart brands like PRIME but at least Coca-Cola’s sports drink portfolio, BODYARMOR and POWERADE, is struggling. Axios

• Siete Foods partnered with burger chain Hopdoddy on a churro milkshake. I impulsively tried the churro shake earlier this week and can confirm that it’s delicious. Instagram

• PepsiCo is pushing Muscle Milk into the plant-based nutrition category with the launch of Muscle Milk Plant Protein. Per Circana, Muscle Milk sales jumped 19% to $425m last year. Food Dive

Distribution News 🚚

• 818 Tequila, the tequila brand founded by Kendall Jenner, made its debut in Australia. 818’s international markets now include Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, and the UK. The Spirits Business