L.A. Libations is looking to spread the wealth with the launch of Taste Tomorrow Ventures, a venture capital arm that has closed a $30 million fund to invest in emerging beverage and snack brands.
Investors in the fund include Ball Corporation and Advantage Sales and Marketing, alongside several undisclosed investors which include a “major retailer” and several “multi-billion dollar public companies,” according to L.A. Libations co-founder and CEO Danny Stepper.
The new wing has also made its first CPG investment in Just Ice Tea, the emerging RTD tea brand launched by Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman in 2022.
Scott Guthrie – a former partner at Virgo Investment Group and a seasoned CPG and entertainment industry leader with past roles at PepsiCo, Disney and Viacom – has been appointed managing director of Taste Tomorrow Ventures, responsible for overseeing the firm.
According to Stepper, L.A. Libations has for years taken “sweat equity” in brands it has incubated and helped to scale, with numerous companies it has worked on, including BodyArmor, Core Water and Zico, exiting to major conglomerates. However, a dedicated venture capital arm now gives the company an avenue to get involved in off-market deals and further integrate itself into the CPG business.
“This is the last missing piece to our platform,” Stepper said in an interview this week, noting that past additions like distribution wing HiTouch Libations DSD, marketing via L.A. Vibrations and merchandising with Relentless Advantage have all helped turn L.A. Libations into a turnkey brand building outlet.
“We’ve been pretty dangerous without capital, so I’ve always had in the back of my head that if we had capital, which all these companies need, we have more access than anyone,” Stepper added. “With our LPs, I for sure know we are the most strategic investor in beverage.”
Taste Tomorrow will focus on early stage brands and issue checks in the $500,000 to $1.5 million range. Stepper noted that the firm will aim to differentiate itself from other dedicated investors in the space by “going earlier” and focusing on young brands that are frequently too new for larger investment firms.
Stepper and Guthrie said the goal for Taste Tomorrow is to build a portfolio of better-for-you, health and wellness oriented brands, with confidence in the founder being paramount to securing a deal.
Brands within the portfolio will also benefit from the “connectivity to the rest of the ecosystem” that L.A. Libations and its partners, like Molson Coors, can provide, Guthrie noted.
“When these brands are growing into bigger needs, we can facilitate and help that process along,” Guthrie said.
At a time where brands have faced heightened challenges in securing investment, and as economic uncertainty persists due to issues like tariffs and rapidly shifting recession predictions, Taste Tomorrow also marks an additional avenue for startup CPG brands to seek funding.
“It is a difficult time,” Stepper acknowledged. “But we also believe some of the best CPG brands in the world have grown and jumped out of economic times like this. So we think the right opportunities can create huge dividends, both for our investors and our brands that we’re working with, in the next few years. Despite all the headwinds, we’re pretty confident this is the right time to launch.”