Laird Superfood has secured a $10 million investment from Danone Manifesto Ventures, the company announced today.
The Sisters, Ore.-based brand, founded in 2015, markets a variety of “superfood” products, including creamers, coconut water, nutrition powders, drink mixes and plant-based sugars. The brand was co-founded by professional surfer Laird Hamilton and former pro volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, his wife, as well as entrepreneur Paul Hodge, the company’s current CEO.
DMV will take a minority stake in the smaller company, which sells its products in over 4,000 retail locations, and recently signed a partnership with CVS to enter approximately 730-plus doors. The company has now raised $41 million thus far from investors, most recently securing a $32 million funding round in January 2019.
One of the participants in that round was shared workspace provider WeWork, which has seen much-publicized losses since its failed initial public offering in 2019. A representative for Laird Superfood stated that the company approached the company to buy back its shares, and that they are no longer a stakeholder.
According to a press release, Laird Superfood will direct the new funding towards new product development, expanding and accelerating production at its manufacturing campus, supporting go-to-market strategies and growing the brand platform.
“Through our time with Paul, Laird and the leadership team, we have developed a deep conviction in Laird Superfood’s culture and its understanding of the needs of today’s consumer,” said Laurent Marcel, CEO of DMV, in a press release. “We are confident that Laird Superfood’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle and the quality of their functional products and ingredients will continue to appeal to consumers and retailers.”
DMV, the venture capital arm of French food and beverage conglomerate Danone, has been an active investor within food and beverage over the past several years, primarily backing plant-based brands. The group led a $30 million investment round in coconut beverage maker Harmless Harvest in February 2018, and has also taken undisclosed stakes in plant-based food and drink brand Forager Project, drinkable oat yogurt Halsa and alkaline water line Kona Deep. Mitte, a Berlin-based startup behind a tabletop system that infuses water with different levels of minerals, also landed a $10.6 million seed round of investment led by DMV in August 2018.
Laird Superfood is set to add a new 30,000 sq. ft. building to its manufacturing campus in Sisters this year, where it employs over 100 people. Land has already been purchased for a fourth building. A fact sheet shared with BevNET also states that Hodge is interested in helping Sisters to “build a more robust middle-class demographic” by developing affordable housing.
“We are working on a project outside of Laird Superfood to develop 285 homes that are designed to be really nice, but affordable workforce housing in our town,” he said, adding that the company is currently in the permitting process and hopes to break ground next year.
In terms of innovation, Hodge said the brand will continue “building the daily ritual” with beverage products designed to deliver sustained energy at different use occasions throughout the day. From there, the company plans to explore further opportunities in healthy snacking and food, with the flexibility of doing so with its own production muscle.
“Being able to build our factories from the ground up has given us key advantages,” he said. “We designed the facility to adapt to the types of manufacturing that we need.”
While the coronavirus pandemic has hit all 50 states, Hodge noted that Laird Superfood has been fortunate to be located in a relatively unaffected area; according to data from the local health department, Deschutes County has only reported 70 confirmed casis of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the company has increased its workforce by 20% over the past quarter, representing a significant employer for a town with a population of 2,500 people. Hodge said the company has also started a new corporate program in which individuals working from home will be able to purchase product at wholesale pricing for home delivery.
Though he said Laird Superfood intends “to be in every aisle of the grocery store” in the long-term, that will mainly take the form of powdered products, at least in beverage. The company markets a refrigerated liquid creamer product, and also offers commercial dispenser machines for food service.
“We have no intention of ever selling this company,” Hodge said. “The decisions we are making now are for the long term.”