Proper Good Grabs Funding, Surfside Stays Hot 📈

Author

CPG WIRE
January 14, 2025

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

  • InvestBev backs whiskey brand 🥃

  • Tribe scores £2.4M in funding 🍫

  • AG1 partners with True Food Kitchen 🥦

  • Sauz reveals newest flavor 🍝

  • Zevia’s outlook improves 🫧

Proper Good Grabs Funding 🥣

Proper Good, an Austin-based purveyor of ready-to-eat meal solutions, secured $2.6M in funding from existing investors and board members. The figure wasn’t publicized but we discovered an SEC filing which is where we got the $2.6M from.

The Shark Tank alum will use the funding to accelerate product development, expand operations, and increase their retail presence throughout the U.S. 

Proper Good hit the market in 2020 with a line of soups before expanding into the breakfast category with an oats range in late 2021. The brand recently expanded into a third category, pasta, with three SKUs. 

"We're absolutely thrilled to have the incredible backing of our investors as we deepen our retail partnerships," said Christopher Jane, Co-Founder & CEO of Proper Good. "This support empowers us to bring an even wider variety of delicious, easy meals to Walmart shelves in 2025.” 

Previous investors in Proper Good include YETI Capital, The Artisan Group, and Doug Bouton, the co-founder of both Halo Top and Gatsby Chocolate. 

Proper Good recently unveiled a pretty sleek packaging refresh too:

Details on the fundraise are scarce but more info here if you’re interested.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Consortium Brand Partners (CBP) has acquired Jonathan Adler, a popular home decor, furniture, and lifestyle brand. CBP partnered with American Exchange Group to get the deal done. This is their third acquisition in 18 months after purchasing stakes in Draper James and Outdoor Voices. Retail Dive

  • More details have emerged about Sazerac buying SVEDKA Vodka from Constellation Brands. The New Orleans-based spirits firm shelled out just over $409M in cash for the vodka brand. Twitter

Fundraising

  • Saga Spirits Group signed an 8-figure financing agreement with InvestBev to support the growth of True Story, its newly launched whiskey brand. True Story is the brainchild of Wes Henderson who previously co-founded Angel’s Envy. The company will use the financing to acquire aged and new fill whiskey barrels. PR Newswire

  • According to an SEC filing, Wooden Spoon Herbs secured $1.3M in equity funding from undisclosed investors. The Minnesota-based brand sells a variety of herbal wellness products like Magic Magnesium and Brain Bloom. Their packaging is pretty compelling. SEC

  • UK-based Tribe raised £2.4M in funding from Yeo Ventures and Mercia Ventures. The London-based company is a purveyor of plant-based protein bars and shakes. The Grocer

Lil Bucks Saves Time & Money With Glimpse ⏰

Lil Bucks has grown super quickly in the natural channel, and with that came some of the weirdness of working with big distributors. 

Maybe you've wondered the same things as Lil Bucks CEO Emily Griffith:

  • Why are KeHE and UNFI taking so much money from me? 

  • What do these strange chargeback codes mean?

  • How can we possibly keep up with this as we scale the business?

The Lil Bucks team heard about Glimpse and after speaking with Glimpse CEO Akash Raju, it was a no-brainer to automate the entire deductions workflow to future-proof the business.

Now Lil Bucks can spend their time on higher-value work, while Glimpse does all the work of importing and reconciling each deduction, as well as checking every single chargeback and proactively disputing any that are invalid. 

In the first six months, Glimpse got the Lil Bucks team $27K back from distributors, as well as saving the team 10 hours a week. This represents an 8-10x ROI. 

No wonder more than 80 challenger brands have partnered with Glimpse since they launched just 8 months ago!

Learn more about Glimpse here or schedule a demo here.

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Jutzlab is a new supplement brand inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Toronto’s Meat Studio did a spectacular job on the branding and packaging. The raised wordmark is a particularly nice touch. TCM is beginning to pick up steam in the West. Last January, L Catterton led a $5M Series A investment in WTHN, a modern wellness brand rooted in TCM. The Dieline

  • Biotech skincare brand Mother Science unveiled a new product called Molecular Genesis. The product is a barrier repair moisturizer powered by their proprietary hero ingredient, Malassezin. Instagram

  • The What Supp Co. is a new player in the wellness industry. Founded by Kelly Gilbert, a former editor at British Vogue, the brand launched with a line of transdermal patches designed to combat various ailments. Beauty News Daily

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • AG1 announced a new partnership with True Food Kitchen. From January through March, two beverages powered by AG1 will be available at all True Food Kitchen locations (as of November they had 45 restaurants across the country). AG1 has been running some interesting tests lately. They partnered with Starbucks in September, and they launched airport vending machines in December. AG1 will make its retail debut later this year, too. Instagram

  • Public Coast Brewing Co. and Smith Teamaker collaborated on a non-alcoholic beverage called Lord Citra Hop Tea. For now the new product is available exclusively at Public Coast’s brewpub in Cannon Beach. BevNET

  • Beekeeper Coffee announced a new partnership with the Portland Trail Blazers. Moving forward there will be a Beekeeper Coffee cart at the Moda Center and customers will even be able to order Beekeeper Coffee cocktails at various bars throughout the arena. Guilty Eats

  • Sauz just unveiled their newest flavor — Miso Garlic Marinara. The new SKU is available storewide at Whole Foods Market. These guys are killing it. Excited to see which category is next for the two-year-old brand. Twitter

  • Oat Haus is graduating from granola butter to old fashioned granola. Later today the brand will launch three granola SKUs: Cookie Dough, Brownie Batter, and Cookies & Cream. The packaging is very fun. Instagram

  • LA-based Elysian Provisions has rebranded as Simbe. The company is a producer of lentil dips and pickles. Instagram

  • BFY snack brand Every Body Eat secured a seed oil free certification from the Seed Oil Free Alliance. Didn’t realize this was a thing. Food Business News

  • Tilray Brands is preparing to kill more than 300 beverage SKUs in order to make its beverage division more efficient. Just Drinks

Data 🖥️

  • RTD cocktail brand Surfside is a certified juggernaut. The Philadelphia-based purveyor of vodka cocktails ended 2024 as the #1 fastest-growing alcohol brand across all categories. Since 2022, Surfside's volume has nearly quadrupled to just under 5 million case depletions. PR Newswire

  • Zevia currently expects Q4 net sales of approximately $39.5M, at the high end of its previous outlook. Zevia’s adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to narrow to $3.9M or $4.2M. Business Wire

Distribution News 🚚