The Consumer Roundup #56

Hey Friends,

Hope you all had a great January. Here’s what’s coming up in February, and of course the latest fundraising announcements.

Events

📢 Webinar: Funding Your Brand's Ascent: Equity and Debt Strategies for Sustainable Growth

📆 February 8th at 2-3pm EST

I’m pleased to be moderating this panel about when to utilize equity vs. debt in order to finance growth for your brand. I’m joined by Anthony Rosen, CFO at Propeller Industries and Sumeet Shah from VHS Ventures.

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📢 Webinar: How To Scale Up and Stand Out In Beauty & Personal Care

📆 February 15th at 1-2pm EST

I’m also excited to be moderating this webinar dedicated to beauty and personal care entrepreneurs. We’re going to talk about how to prepare for explosive growth and navigate the complexities of financing, scaling, and establishing a sustainable presence in the retail landscape. I’m so pleased to be talking with beauty pros - Odile, Cristina, and Vanessa.

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☕️ Wake Up! CPG - Austin, TX

📆 February 22nd 8:30am-10:30am CST

For Austin peeps – Marc Nathan throws an awesome monthly CPG meetup. I haven’t been, but the guy might be the OG of CPG coffee meetups. He’s been doing it for years and I’ve heard from quite a few folks it’s a great time…I even heard that some people drive up from San Antonio just to go.

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This issue is brought to you by Propeller Industries.

Propeller Industries is the leading strategic finance and accounting partner for venture-stage companies. Thinking about profitability, extending your runway, and improving efficiency in your operations? Managing your company’s finances requires multiple skill sets. Propeller’s fractional model offers a dynamic solution that provides a cost-effective alternative to hiring full-time finance talent.

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Fundraising News

💻Consumer Technology💻

Splash Inc, the peer-to-peer real money sports strategy gaming platform, raised a $14.1M A2 funding round from Boston Seed, Velvet Sea Ventures, K5, Elysian Park, Acies Investments, Accomplice, Counterview - PR Newswire

Foodscripts, the telenutrition company that aims to democratize access to nutrition in a sustainable and cost-efficient way, raised $10 million from Advocate Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Intermountain Health - Fierce Healthcare

Leal, which works with B2C and e-commerce businesses in Latin America to enable merchants to create a customer database to then offer cash back and rewards to loyal shoppers, raised $5 million co-led by LEAP Global Partners and Rakuten Capital - TechCrunch

Myavana, the personalized hair care technology company, announced a partnership with Ulta Beauty and investments from Prisma Ventures and the BrainTrust Fund - PR Newswire

Eggscape Entertainment, a game studio that creates social games for mixed reality, raised a $4.25 million seed round led by Transcend Fund with participation from The Venture Reality Fund and angel investor Lautaro Brunatti - PR Newswire

Enhanced Games, which seems like the Olympic Games but with no drug testing, raised a multi-million dollar round seed round from Apeiron Investment Group, Peter Thiel, and Balaji Srinivasan - PR Newswire

🛒eCommerce Enablement🛒

Owner, an all in one ecommerce platform that enables independent restaurants create a website with online ordering capabilities, customer relationship management tools, marketing automation and a branded mobile app generator, raised $33 million Series B on a $200 million post-money valuation. The round was co-led by Redpoint Ventures and Altman Capital with participation from Horsley Bridge, Activant Capital and Transpose Platform Management - TechCrunch

🛍️Consumer Brands / Inventory-Based Businesses🛍️

InvestBev makes a 7-figure investment in JuneShine, the hard kombucha and ready-to-drink spirits brand - PR Newswire

The Zero Proof, the online retailer, importer and supplier of non-alcoholic beverages, raised its Series A led by Asahi Group Beverages & Innovation with participation from Overline and Springdale Ventures - The Zero Proof

👩‍🎨Creator Economy👨‍🎨

Podcastle, a podcast creation platform that has AI features, raised a $13.5 million Series A led by Mosaic Ventures with participation from RTP Global, Point Nine Capital, Sierra Ventures and AI Fund - TechCrunch

🗞️News🗞️

Novo Nordisk, the Danish Drug maker that is famous for creating Ozempic, surpassed $500 billion market cap. It has now become the most valuable company in Europe - WSJ