• 🐮 Lakeview, noosa Form Novus
• 🐄 Country Archer Rebrands
• 👋 CPG CEO Shakeups
• 🧑‍💻 NRS Adds Google Integration
• 💰 New Food Funds
• 🎸 The Rockstar Entrepreneur. How Sammy Hagar Is Building His Next $100M Brand.

Today, we’re spilling the beans. 

Veggie burger slinger Actual Veggies has closed a $7 million series A round led by Relentless Consumer Partners following 125% year-over-year revenue growth in 2024. The new cash will go toward key new hires and give a boost to its marketing efforts.

• By year’s end, Actual Veggies expects to grow its eight-person team to 11 or 12 employees as it works to prioritize in-store demos and promos to expand its consumer base. 

“We’re growing both the marketing and sales teams, but with the same ethos of being small and scrappy and having only folks that are doers on the team,” said Jason Rosenbaum, co-founder and co-CEO of Actual Veggies. 

Elly Truesdell’s New Fare Partners, Sovos Brands founder Todd Lachman, and Tom Brady’s business manager Ben Rawitz also participated in the round. As part of the round, Truesdell and Scott Caras, president at Relentless, will join Actual Veggies’ board of directors along with CPG veteran Jamie Borteck. 

Relentless and New Fare Partners have both previously invested in Actual Veggies and “always intended to put in more capital,” but the company hadn’t needed it until now, according to Rosenbaum. 

The chef-crafted, plant-based food company – which sells veggie burgers and Super Fries – will also use the new capital infusion to support its rapid distribution growth. 

Over the past six months, Actual Veggies has more than doubled its nationwide store count, growing from 3,000 to over 7,000 with major retailers including Albertsons, Whole Foods Market and Kroger, among others.

• The brand also expanded its partnerships with Whole Foods and Sprouts by introducing a new line of dairy cheese-infused veggie burgers, broadening its reach to vegetarians. 
• Next month, Actual Veggies’ flagship Black Bean Burger will hit the shelves of 82 Costco locations across the Southeast region.

“Like a lot of natural brands, we launch most of our innovation in [the] natural [channel], but one thing that’s been rewarding is how well conventional buyers have adopted our products,” said co-founder and co-CEO Hailey Swartz, noting the brand expects to double its revenue this year. 

Insiders can read the full story for all the details and insight into Actual Veggies' growth strategy.

Lakeview Farms and its newly-acquired noosa brand have merged to form new entity Novus Foods. Noosa yoghurt will continue to operate as a standalone division. 

• The rebrand aims to reflect its vision to become a leading, refrigerated CPG company.
• Both businesses will continue to innovate in the yogurt category “and beyond,” said Lakeview CEO Tom Davis. 
• About 240 noosa team members joined Novus as a result of the merger; the newly-combined company also took over noosa’s Bellvue, Colo., production facility. 

Catch Up: Noosa Acquired By Lakeview Farms

Shorter is sweeter for the snack brand formerly known as Country Archer Provisions. The meat stick maker streamlined its name to Archer and reworked its look, putting aside black packaging for a cream, orange and blue color palette across all products.

🆕 The rebrand launched today across the website and social platforms of the nearly 50-year-old brand  

🦃 Archer has added animal illustrations to the packs in a move it believes will better communicate with its consumers; it will also launch its first national advertising campaign in Q3.

💬 “With the increased demand for high-protein snacks, this rebrand is a crucial step that will enable us to elevate our brand presence in a competitive market, stand out on the shelf, and build broader brand awareness,” said founder and CEO Eugene Kang in a statement.

Stay tuned for details on the rebrand as part of our Expo West coverage next week.

Goya president CEO Robert “Bob” Unanue was informed by the company’s board this week that he has been removed from the top spot, per a press release distributed by Unanue himself. 

• The shakeup comes after years of contention between the chief executive and Goya’s board; after the 2020 presidential election the board reportedly censored Unanue for making false claims about election fraud and speaking publicly about politics on behalf of Goya.
• Unanue publicly endorsed Donald Trump ahead of the election in September. He has held the role of president and CEO for two decades and worked at Goya for nearly 48 years.    

In other people move news:

🍦 As Goya’s CEO heads out, Unilever’s chief executive Hein Schumacher has also been ousted from his post as the board aims to speed up the CPG giant’s turnaround efforts. Current CFO Fernando Fernandez will take over the CEO spot on March 1. 

🏭 Sauces, dips and dressings manufacturer Tulkoff Foods named Mike Kagan (formerly GM at Giraffe Foods) its new CEO, less than six months after the business was acquired by Graham Partners.

🍜 Former Zevia leader Paddy Spence is joining Momofuku Goods as CEO. He will work alongside co-founders David Chang and Marguerite Mariscal to scale the Asian cooking sauce and noodle brand.

Some indie retailers will now be able to show off what they’ve got in stock via Google Search, Maps and the Shopping tab after National Retail Solutions (NRS) added a new integration with Google to help drive site traffic and visibility. 

🔗 The integration is available to NRS retailers with a verified Google business profile, allowing shop owners to link inventory to specific store locations, eliminating the need for manual product updates and uploads. 

💭 “We’re committed to providing our independent retailers with the tools and technology they need to thrive and compete with larger chains," said Elie Y. Katz, president and CEO of NRS.

Here’s a look at two new food industry funds:

🚜 Northeast Regional Food Business Center launched the first round of its $10 million Business Builder fund, which will grant between $15,000 and $100,000 to “strengthen local and regional food systems by providing direct funding to small- and mid-sized farm and food businesses.” 

• Business Builder has three “tracks” – Equipment, Business Development and Product & Market Expansion – for those seeking funding.

🛒 VC firm Consumer Equity Partners is raising investment for its new Industry Innovation Fund, which will be funding retail technology companies in grocery. 

• The VC is raising between $200 million and $500 million for the new fund with about half of the investment coming from retailers across multiple channels over the course of a five-year period.

Sammy Hagar’s passion for tequila runs deep. But the iconic rock star, best known for not being able to drive 55, and for his time as the frontman of Van Halen, has an even deeper commitment to earning and preserving the trust of his fans. Santo Spirits is where those two worlds meet.

Listen to the episode now. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.