Beyond Meat Launches Sparkling Protein Drink, Good Crisp Gets Acquired & More

Consumer VC Roundup #150 – Latest News in Emerging Consumer Brands, Tech & Commerce Enablement From the Week of January 12th 2025

This Week In Consumer

📰 Consumer News📰

• U.S. shipping tech firm Bluspark Global exposed decades of customer shipment data and its logistics systems online due to basic security flaws, including plaintext passwords and remote access vulnerabilities. Security researcher Eaton Zveare discovered the issues and struggled to reach the company until a maritime cybersecurity nonprofit intervened; the flaws have since been fixed. The incident highlights ongoing cyber risks in the global shipping industry, where hackers have been linked to cargo theft. TC

• Tyson Foods will pay $82.5M to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming it inflated beef prices for years, alongside earlier settlements from JBS and Cargill; the deal still requires court approval. FD

• The FTC alleged that Walmart received unfair pricing advantages from PepsiCo, claiming the CPG giant gave Walmart lower prices, promotional payments, and allowances not equally offered to competitors, violating the Robinson-Patman Act. FD

🧃Consumer Brands👚

💰Fundraises💰

• SEMCAP has completed the final close of its first food and nutrition-focused growth equity fund at $125 million, marking its entry into the sector with a dedicated vehicle to invest in companies across the food and nutrition space. AA

💸M&A💸

• Coca-Cola has paused plans to sell Costa Coffee after a lengthy auction failed to attract offers meeting its expectations, with bids from private equity firms reportedly falling short of the company’s valuation. FBM

• Inkbox co-founders Tyler and Braden Handley are considering a buyback as BIC plans to close the temporary tattoo brand and dismantle its Skin Creative division, four years after acquiring Inkbox for $65M. BI

• The Compleat Food Group has completed its acquisition of Greencore’s sauces and soups business in Bristol, adding a 50,438-square-foot facility with 300 employees to its portfolio, expanding its chilled foods presence and bringing total turnover to £1.4 billion. FBM

• MPearlRock has acquired The Good Crisp Company, a clean-label salty snack brand that offers healthier versions of classic snacks, as part of its strategy to build high-growth CPG brands using data-driven decision-making, merchandising expertise, and strong operational support, though financial terms were not disclosed. BW

• Prime Matter Labs, backed by Monogram Capital, has acquired struggling makeup contract manufacturer Mana Products, which had furloughed staff and paused operations before the sale. BI

• Laird Superfoods is expanding its health and wellness portfolio by acquiring Navitas’ organic nutritional powders, berries, and seeds for $38.5 million, funded via a $50 million Series A convertible stock sale, with the deal expected to close in Q1 2026. FD

• Seattle Cider Co.’s production facility and taproom will close next month following its acquisition by Oregon-based 2 Towns Ciderhouse. BI

• Explorer Cold Brew has acquired Savorista, a specialty brand focused on decaf and half-caff coffee, to expand its caffeine-conscious portfolio, boost product innovation, and offer high-quality coffee options across a wider range of caffeine levels and formats. CT

↪️Rebrands & Relaunches↩️

• Amerikas, after acquiring Skyn Iceland in October 2024, is relaunching the brand with updated packaging, formulas, and storytelling that emphasize its Icelandic inspiration and science-driven approach. BI

🚀Debuts, Distribution & Expansion🚀

• Digg, rebooted by founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, has launched its public beta as a Reddit rival, offering community feeds, posts, and upvoting features. TC

• Beyond Meat is launching a new sparkling protein drink line called Beyond Immerse, offering 10g or 20g of plant-based protein, 7g of fiber, plus antioxidants and electrolytes, in flavors like peach mango, lemon lime, and orange tangerine, as the company expands beyond meat into beverages to tap into growing consumer demand for protein. FD

• Tubby Todd has expanded from DTC into national retail, launching in over 1,100 Target stores and online, marking a major milestone for the baby and toddler skincare brand known for gentle, eczema-friendly products. BND

• Ernesta has opened a new showroom in Birmingham, Michigan, and plans stores in Dallas and Manhasset, NY, this year, expanding its brick-and-mortar footprint to seven locations with more planned. RD

• Aldi plans to open 180+ U.S. stores in 2026, reaching nearly 2,800 locations, with further expansion to 3,200 by 2028. The openings include 10 Phoenix stores and its first in Maine. The retailer also plans new distribution centers and digital upgrades to support growth. RTP

• Jones Road is expanding beyond face products into bodycare with The Body Collection, a five-product lineup (cream, lotion, oil, scrub and shower gel) focused on simple, barrier-supporting formulas enriched with ceramides for everyday use. BND

• Amazon has launched portable Just Walk Out units that can be set up in hours, enabling pop-ups and event retail. Seventeen pilot locations debuted in 2025, including a music festival and a racetrack store. RTP

• Cheree Ashley, a former heroin addict and founder of three recovery centers, launched Osier to connect addiction recovery with skincare, aiming to give back after her own journey to sobriety. BI

🪇Collabs🪇

• Walmart and Wing are expanding their drone delivery partnership to 150 U.S. stores over the next year, reaching more than 40 million customers, with plans to scale to over 270 locations by 2027 across major cities like Los Angeles, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Miami. RD

🔻Closures, Bankruptcies & Downsizes🔻

• Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a year of financial struggles, bringing in former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck and a $1.75 billion financing package to support restructuring. RD

• J&J Snack Foods is closing three manufacturing sites in Atlanta, Holly Ridge (NC), and Colton (CA) by the end of Q1 2026 as part of a business revamp aimed at simplifying production, improving distribution, and generating $20 million in annualized savings. FD

• Bob’s Discount Furniture has filed for an IPO on the NYSE under the ticker “BOBS” to help pay down debt and fund long-term expansion, reporting $2 billion in revenue and $119 million in net income for the year ending Sept. 28, 2025, and aiming to grow from 200+ stores to over 500 by 2035. RD

• Anheuser-Busch is closing two breweries in Fairfield, CA, and Merrimack, NH, and has sold its Newark, NJ, plant as part of a U.S. manufacturing overhaul, affecting 475 employees who will be offered other roles, while shifting production to remaining facilities and investing further in its brand portfolio. FD

• Macy’s will close its Tulsa, Oklahoma fulfillment center this spring as part of efforts to modernize and simplify its supply chain, with affected employees offered transfers or severance. RD

• Coca-Cola is starting a corporate restructuring in 2026, beginning with 75 layoffs at its headquarters on Feb. 28, with additional phased cuts expected in the coming months. FD

• American Signature Inc. is closing its last 89 Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with going-out-of-business sales now underway. RD

• GameStop plans to close up to 200 stores this month, following 590 closures in FY 2024, while unveiling a $35B performance-based pay package for CEO Ryan Cohen, tied to a 10X market cap growth and $10B cumulative EBITDA. RTP

• Macy’s is closing another 14 underperforming stores as part of its long-term turnaround plan, which aims to shut about 150 locations in total while streamlining operations and focusing investment on more productive stores. RD

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💻Consumer Software💻

• UPS’ Happy Returns is piloting AI tools to combat returns fraud, including a risk-scoring system that flags suspicious returns and a “Return Vision” feature that compares returned items to retailer catalog images to detect mismatches, with brands like Everlane already using the technology. RD

• Buzzy launched an AI platform that helps creators and brands generate viral content ideas by analyzing social media trends and performance data, focusing on ideation rather than production. BW

• Listen Labs raised $69M Series B led by Ribbit Capital to scale its AI-driven customer research platform, which has grown 15x in nine months and now serves hundreds of enterprises including Microsoft and Robinhood. PRN

• Traini raised $7.5M to develop pet emotional intelligence technology, including its Cognitive Smart Collar—a generative AI–powered wearable translating pets’ emotions into human-understandable signals. BW

• Quadric, an inference engine for on-device AI chips, raised $30M Series C led by ACCELERATE Fund, bringing total funding to $72M, to scale its platform across edge LLMs, automotive, and enterprise. PRN

• Speechmatics and Sully.ai partnered to deploy AI-powered healthcare agents and scribes globally, leveraging NVIDIA infrastructure to cut administrative burden and add 30M+ workforce minutes for clients like Oshi Health and Tebra. BW

• Atomic Insights, a payments and workflow automation platform for RIAs and family offices, raised $10M in seed funding led by Aquiline to modernize wealth management infrastructure. PRN

• Novee launched from stealth with $51.5M to tackle AI-powered cyberattacks using a proprietary AI hacker, aiming to automate offensive security at machine speed and close gaps left by human-scale penetration testing. BW

🛒eCommerce & Retail Tech🛒

• Walmart is integrating its products into Google’s AI chatbot Gemini, letting users discover and buy Walmart and Sam’s Club items directly through Gemini, starting in the U.S. and later expanding internationally. RD

💰Funds Raising Funds💰

• Danone is investing $4M to expand its Fort Worth, Texas plant, boosting production of Danimals, Activia, and YoCrunch to meet rising demand for high-protein yogurts. FD

Thanks for reading!