From kombucha to cold brew to cricket flour, these startups are shaking up the lineup on grocery store shelves.
Big CPG players have stepped up their M&A and investment activity in recent years. Since late 2015, General Mills, Campbell Soup, and Kellogg’s have all launched or invested in venture capital funds to foster startup innovation.
Other corporates have made major acquisitions. Danone announced a $12.5B acquisition of WhiteWave Foods in October 2016, while the very next month PepsiCo acquired kombucha startup KeVita and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group acquired antioxidant beverage startup Bai Brands for $1.7B.
More recently, Nestlé paid up to $500M for a majority stake in coffee startup Blue Bottle Coffee just last month. The company was valued at $700M at the time of acquisition. Prior to the deal, Blue Bottle had raised $116M in disclosed funding, from investors running the gamut from large corporates and CVCs (Nestlé, Morgan Stanley, Google Ventures), to high profile VCs (Lowercase Capital, Index Ventures), to a bevy of celebrity investors (Bono, Jared Leto, Tony Hawk), among others.
Despite acquisition activity in the food & beverage sector, however, dozens of private food & beverage companies — some with equity funding from the industry leaders mentioned above — are still attacking every aisle in the supermarket. These companies offer a wide range of products, from ostrich burgers to nutritional supplements to kid-friendly frozen foods, as well as a wide range of distribution options, including subscription, solely online, and traditional in-store channels.
We used CB Insights data to uncover over 175 food & beverage startups changing the way shoppers buy groceries, and sorted them into 25 subcategories, from fruit juices to baby food. Check out the full market map below.
This market map is not meant to be exhaustive of companies in the space. Categories are not mutually exclusive.
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