Recent Healthy Living Investment News

Venture capital markets remain tight, but the health and wellness/health living trends are real, and the opportunities for solid businesses, first-movers, science-based products and strong brands remain.

Here is some news from some recent deals in this space:

• Espresso Fitness (supplier/developer of interactive cardio systems) received $14 million in debt and equity (announced Dec. 2008).  The round included debt from Silicon Valley Bank and equity from Sierra Ventures, Physic Ventures and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital.
  
  
• Lifefactory Inc. completed a $750,000 round of seed funding from Greenhouse Capital Partners in March 2009 to support designing and manufacturing of green consumer products, such as BPA-free baby bottles.
  
  
• Plum Organics became part of Catamount Ventures' Nest Collective in Feb. 2009.  Plum markets and distributes processed food products to the infant and kids segments.
  
  
• Sweet Leaf Tea landed $15.6 million from Nestle for a 35% stake in the company.  My personal bet is that we see a radical brand redesign soon....just a guess.  I found the following summary on this transaction and space from a 3/31/09 Nutrition Capital Network newsletter:  "Last year Sweet Leaf Tea completed a round of funding from Catterton Partners, which committed $18 million of growth capital. Ready to drink teas, including organic, green and rooibos, have been a focus for big food and beverage companies seeking to expand their health & wellness offerings. In February 2008 Coca-Cola acquired a 40% interest in The Honest Tea Company, a niche manufacturer of certified organic RTD teas. Last summer, PepsiCo and Unilever announced a licensing agreement to manufacture, market and distribute Starbucks' premium RTD Tazo Tea."
  
  
• Phil's Fresh Foods received an investment from Brendan Synnott's (Survivor/Bear Naked fame) Burrito Investment Group (BIG).  From what I can tell, the company has been quickly re-branded as Evol.  Again, NCN further reports: "BIG has secured the right to fund an additional $2 million to finalize the first tranche of the transaction. Additionally, BIG has the right to fully fund a second tranche. Phil's Fresh Foods, which was founded in 2001, increased sales 33% to $1.6 million in 2008 and has a 2009 goal of $6 million as the company plans mainstream supermarket expansion, according to a newspaper article posted on its website."