Wonderskin Grabs $50M, Celsius Reports Q1 Results 📉

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

• Tosi raises more funding 💵

• Aesop opens new concept store 🔥

• Paris Hilton launches skincare brand 💄

• Kraft Heinz takes on Smucker 🥪

• Hain Celestial replaces CEO 🍠

Thanks to everyone who attended the Era VC x CPG Wire Pitchslam yesterday. Five incredible founders pitched their brands and we’re excited to announce the winner soon. Also there will be no newsletter on Saturday but we’ll be back in your inboxes on Tuesday, May 13th.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• London-based sustainable skincare brand SBTRCT has been acquired by T&H Marketing, a UK-based producer of private label beauty and personal care products. CPG veteran Benjamin Grace launched the brand five years ago. LinkedIn

• After raising a staggering $450M in funding, plant-based meat brand Meati is being sold for a paltry $4M. The collapse of Meati is attributable to a few key factors: plant-based meat sales have been cratering for three years straight, and a wise lender apparently repossessed two-thirds of Meati’s cash after a $100M raise. Vegconomist

Fundraising

• Wonderskin, a tech-enabled, social-first cosmetics brand from the London, secured $50M in a Series A funding round led by Insight Partners. The beauty brand was founded in 2020 by Michael Malinsky (CEO), Marina Kalenchyts (Brand Director), and Doug Cooper (COO). Wonderskin differentiates by bringing novel beauty products to market that historically have gone viral (like their popular Lip Stain line). PR Newswire

• According to an SEC filing, clean snack brand Tosi raised another $6.5M in equity funding. Tosi produces a variety of organic, vegan, and gluten-free products like nutrition bars and snack puffs. Their retail partners include Albertsons, Costco, Erewhon, and others. The brand rolled out a solid brand refresh earlier this year. SEC

• Eco-friendly cleaning brand Clean Cult raised $5M in a Series B extension round and launched at 1,800 Target stores across the country. PR Newswire

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Aesop opened its first sustainable concept store in London. The sub 700-square-foot store is located at One New Change near St. Paul’s Cathedral. Unsurprisingly, it’s an impressive store. The Industry

• Paris Hilton teamed up with beauty vet Alexandra Marsh to launch a luxury skincare brand called Parívie. The brand’s proprietary inPHinite Youth Technology uses peptides, antioxidants, and fermented extracts to support the skin barrier and mitigate the impact of environmental stressors. PR Newswire

• Crown Affair enlisted D.S. & DURGA to launch a new fragranced Leave-In Conditioner. The product will debut on May 13th and is packaged beautifully. Instagram

• Sol de Janeiro, acquired by L’Occitane Group in late 2021, is returning to its roots with a new lotion product called Body Badalada Vitamin-Infused Lotion. The new product will debut exclusively at Sephora in June. WWD

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Kraft Heinz is going after J.M. Smucker with their newest Lunchables extension, Lunchables PB&J. The new line comes in two flavors — Grape and Strawberry — and is available in refrigerators across the country for $2.49 per pack. Food Business News

• Our Home, a diversified producer of salty snacks, is taking iconic popcorn brand Pop Secret into the ready-to-eat popcorn category with a new line that will debut at Sweets & Snacks next week. Our Home acquired Pop Secret from The Campbell’s Company last summer. Excited to check this out at Sweets & Snacks. PR Newswire

• Anthony Kiedis and Shane Powers launched a canned coffee brand called Jolene Coffee. Two SKUs are available: Cold Brew and Oat Milk Latte. Their tagline is “everything happens over coffee” which is great IMO. Jolene

• Athletic Brewing teamed up with renowned chefs like David Chang, Chris Shepherd, and a handful of others to launch a new non-alc brew called Aftershift. $50K of the profits from Aftershift will go to the Southern Smoke Foundation, a non-profit that supports mental health initiatives in the food and beverage industry. Great-looking can. Instagram

• Diageo is being sued for allegedly misleading consumers about the purity of its Casamigos and Don Julio tequila brands. The proposed class action lawsuit suggests that Casamigos and Don Julio are not 100% tequila as they contain alcohol derived from cane sugar and other sources. If you want to try a great (and great-looking) tequila check out La Gritona. Reuters

• Hain Celestial dismissed its CEO, Wendy Davidson, and announced a strategic review of its entire brand portfolio. Alison E. Lewis is stepping into the interim President and CEO role. Just Food

Data 🖥️

• Celsius Holdings disappointed in Q1 with revenue declining 7% YoY to $329M while net income dropped 43%. The bright spots were a) international sales jumped 41% and b) Celsius closed the Alani Nu acquisition on April 1st. Together, Celsius and Alani Nu will capture over 16% of the domestic energy drink market by dollar share. Alani Nu also recently surpassed $1B in TTM retail sales which is welcome news for Celsius. Business Wire

• BellRing continues to perform thanks to Premier Protein, its flagship nutrition brand. Q2 net sales rose 18.9% to $588M — a gain of $98.3M — with Premier Protein leading the way with a 22% net sales increase. It’s worth nothing that Premier’s jump in sales was largely due to volume increases, not just price increases. Twitter

Distribution News 🚚

• K-beauty brand HANYUL is launching exclusively at Sephora U.S.

• Ripi Foods launched at DeCicco’s and Morton Williams.

• Aussie gin brand Four Pillars launched in China.

• Meat snack brand LK expanded to 2,800 Walmart stores.

• Corpse Reviver launched at ShopRite.