Farmhouse Culture Lands $6.5 Million Investment
General Mills business development group joins existing investors in recognizing growth potential of probiotics category
Emerging probiotics powerhouse Farmhouse Culture® has inked a deal with 301 INC, the new business development and venturing unit at General Mills, leading a Series D investment round that aims to drive national availability of the brand’s growing food and beverage product lines. 301 INC’s support is a testament to growing consumer demand for probiotic-rich foods, as well as the brand’s leadership in the category.
Farmhouse Culture has been on the cutting edge of fermented foods since its founder Kathryn Lukas started selling her sauerkraut in a local Santa Cruz farmers’ market in 2008. Under the direction of a new executive team with deep-rooted experience in the natural foods industry, the company is actively expanding beyond the sauerkraut and probiotic-packed Gut Shots™ line to bring probiotic-rich foods to categories across the grocery store. New products have already debuted, including Gut Shots™, an expanded line of Fermented Vegetables including beets, carrots, cauliflower and more, and a recent launch into the snack category with Kraut Krisps™, a chip made with 50 percent sauerkraut. The company’s innovation team expects to break into additional categories later this year.
“Americans are embracing the positive health benefits of probiotics and are looking for more ways to nurture healthy, good bacteria from real foods,” says John Tucker, Farmhouse Culture CEO. “301 INC and our existing investors are helping us reach our mission of cultivating generations of healthy microbiomes and improving health and well-being through nourishing probiotic-rich foods.”
301 INC joins existing investors, led by White Road Investments and Renewal Funds, to help the brand seize potential for rapid growth at a time when consumers are embracing the importance of gut health – growing sales and marketing visibility, scaling up production of existing product lines, and accelerating innovation in the fast-growing probiotic-rich foods category.
“We’ve been watching the functional foods space grow exponentially over the past few years, with Farmhouse Culture emerging as a leader,” states John Haugen, vice president and general manager of 301 INC. “The recipe for success is there: probiotic-rich products that taste great, led by a team with strong experience in the natural foods industry. Our collective goal is for consumers across the country to have access to the full line of these products.”
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