Springdale Ventures Lands $40M for Fund II 💰

GM and Happy Thursday, folks. Friendly reminder that this is the final edition of This Week in CPG for 2023. After a little bit of rest and relaxation, we’ll be back in your inbox on January 2nd.

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Now let’s get to the newsletter. Here’s a preview:

• LVMH buys another manufacturer 🛠️

• Iris&Romeo secures funding 🫦

• Instacart’s fastest growing brands 📈

• Doughlicious launches in the U.S. 🍪

• Chamberlain Coffee rolls out at Albies ☕️

Springdale Ventures Lands $40M for Fund II 💰

Springdale Ventures, an investor in early stage consumer brands, successfully raised $40M for Fund II. The Austin-based venture firm was co-founded by Daniel Graham and Genevieve Gilbreath, two well-known figures in Austin’s startup ecosystem, and made its debut in 2019.

Springdale typically invests in Seed or Series A rounds, and they cut checks that range from $250K to $2M. Their average check size, however, is $750K.

Thus far they’ve backed a wide variety of consumer brands across an even wider variety of categories. Their food investments include Acid League, Feastables, FitJoy, and Goodles, while their beverage investments include Better Booch, Lumen, and Proxies. 

Lately, Springdale has placed an emphasis on health & wellness brands, with investments in First Day, Hazel, KOS, TBD, and Wile. They’ve also backed companies in categories like cookware, baby care, pet care, and even a startup that converts cremated ashes into diamonds (the company is called Eterneva).

Unlike quite a few venture firms, Springdale also invests in alcohol brands, and they’ve partnered with the likes of BeatBox Beverages, Big Nose Kate Whiskey, and Canteen Spirits.

More on the announcement here.

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Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• Luxury goods juggernaut LVMH has acquired yet another artisanal manufacturer in Renato Menegatti, an Italian producer of specialty metal products. Lately LVMH has been gobbling up its supply chain. Late last year they purchased jewelry producer Pedemonte Group, and earlier this year they acquired two leather tanneries. Ruetir

Fundraising

• Iris&Romeo, a San Francisco-based producer of multi-functional beauty products, secured an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from True Beauty Ventures. The company was founded in 2019 by Michele Gough-Baril. True Beauty has backed a number of successful beauty brands like Crown Affair, Dieux, K18, Vacation, Youthforia, and others. WWD

• New York-based alternative leather startup TômTex closed a $2.25M funding round that was led by Happiness Capital. Additional participants include SOSV and MIH Capital. Fashion United

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• The smart folks over at Byrdie put together a list of the 100 best beauty products of 2023. You’ll recognize some familiar faces. Byrdie

• Youth to the People, the superfood skincare brand that L’Oreal acquired in 2021, is expanding into body care with three products — a body butter, cleanser, and scrub. The new line will be available exclusively on the Sephora app on 12/23 🔽 Instagram

• Luxury eyewear brand Moscot is preparing to open its 4th store in London, which will be its 25th store globally. WWD

• Get Dirty, a new full-body cleaning wipes brand, officially launched. Twitter

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Seedlip, the non-alcoholic spirits brand that Diageo purchased in 2019, launched a new product called Notas de Agave. Per IWSR, Seedlip is the largest non-alc spirits brand in the U.S. The Spirits Business

• Loverboy, the popular alcoholic beverage brand founded by Kyle Cooke, unveiled a new line of non-alcoholic sparkling teas. Two flavors are available: Lemon Iced Tea and White Tea Peach. Good-looking cans. PR Newswire

• Rapper & entrepreneur Snoop Dogg partnered with Hill Beverage Co. on a new line of CBD and THC beverages. Some of the products are branded under Death Row Records, the iconic record label that Snoop Dogg acquired last year. FoodBev

• There’s a new PRIME Hydration flavor, Cherry Freeze, that’s supposedly dropping soon. Miraculously, the product is already available for resale on eBay. Stack3d

• Mark Gallo pointed out an exciting new beverage brand called Más. It’s basically agua fresca meets energy drink. Fun, differentiated branding, too. Twitter

Data 🖥️

• Instacart has released some of the fastest-growing food & beverage brands on its platform. Some of the featured brands include MUSH, OLIPOP, ZOA Energy, Bachan’s, and many others. Pretty fascinating. Instacart

Distribution News 🚚

• Chamberlain Coffee launched their canned latte line nationwide at Albertsons.

• Prebiotic soda brand Poppi is now the official soda of Juice Press and available at 80+ stores.

• Women’s wellness brand O Positiv, the maker of FLO Vitamins, launched at Target.

• Doughlicious, a UK-based producer of cookie dough & gelato bites, launched in the U.S.