The ice cream aisle used to be a lot less complicated. There were national brands, regional brands, a couple of super-premium players, and a smattering of dairy-free. Today, shoppers are presented with a bewildering array of options from lactose-free, high-protein, low calorie, and Keto, to a wave of plant-based products and ‘animal-free’ pints featuring milk proteins produced by microbes, not cows.
Amidst all the noise, Brooklyn-based
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream – which launched out of a truck in New York City in 2008 and has since developed a cult following with its high butterfat, artisanal pints and minimalist branding – has largely stuck to its knitting over the years, although founders Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O Neill saw an opportunity in plant-based from the get-go.
Little Leaf Farms raises $90m to further scale hydroponic greenhouse-grown lettuce Hydroponic lettuce grower Little Leaf Farms has raised $90m in a recent funding round led by Equilibrium Capital to fully fund its East Coast expansion and build out new greenhouse sites in the region.
Other investors in the latest funding round include Coppermine Capital, investor Bill Helman, and Pilot House Associates. Bank of America has also committed more than $20m to date, with an additional $20m planned in financing to support
Equilibrium CEO David Chen, who will be joining Little Leaf Farms’ board of directors, said:
“Equilibrium Capital’s growth equity investment in Little Leaf Farms brings together a major player in next-generation indoor agriculture with the leader in CEA (controlled environment agriculture) investments. Little Leaf Farms is revolutionizing the industry with its sustainable indoor growing technologies, to grow fresh, nutritious great
Nice-cream pioneer Hakuna Banana, Totes Oats rebrands as Must Love to test broader distribution The co-founders of the fast-growing banana-based Hakuna Banana and oat-milk based Totes Oats nice-cream brands are bringing their better-for-you pints and bars under the new umbrella brand Must Love to better communicate the company’s core values, leverage the individual brands’ successes for collective growth and provide room for future innovation in new categories.
Along with the new name, the startup adopted a new look, which co-founders and best friends Mollie Cha and Hannah Hong say will help the product pop on shelf and evoke the products’ taste-appeal for a one-two punch that they hope will drive strong sales as the company expands distribution nationwide and explores new channels.
Energy drinks, oatmilk lattes, kombucha: What drives the functional beverage consumer? The functional beverage consumer and their purchase motivations are just as diverse as the functional beverage category itself, which encompasses everything from sports drinks and energy drinks to ionized/alkaline water and nutrient-infused coffee, says new research from Brightfield Group and its social listening platform Evergi.
In a new report from
Brightfield Group, the CBD and hemp market research firm leveraged its newly-launched social listening platform,
Evergi, which integrates psychographic consumer survey data with social listening to help CPG marketers and innovation teams better understand consumer need states within the emerging wellness industry.
Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Carbon labeling, promises to be carbon neutral, positive emerge as top trend Whether or not you believe in climate change or the food industry’s contribution to the greenhouse gasses wrapping the earth and changing weather patterns, plenty of consumers do, and they increasingly are buying products based on their environmental impact – elevating sustainability and carbon labeling from political talking points to business priorities.
Currently only a handful of companies disclose on packaging the total amount of carbon produced during the manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal of food products, but many more see the writing on the wall and are developing rating and labeling programs to inform consumers about their products’ environmental impact.