HumanCo LLC has closed an oversubscribed $35 million bridge funding round that includes several celebrity investors, part of a strategy to further spread its mission of making healthier living more accessible to the masses, said co-founder and CEO Jason Karp.
The investment firm and holding company that incubates, backs, acquires and scales health-focused consumer packaged goods businesses also has obtained a “super-majority” stake in a Vermont-based wholesale manufacturer of frozen gluten-free bread, pizza and cookies.
HumanCo, which emerged from stealth in May 2020, in August also announced Venus Williams joined its board of advisers and made an undisclosed investment. Williams is a professional tennis player and entrepreneur who has won seven Grand Slam titles.
Joining Williams in the bridge round were Brian Sheth, co-founder and former president of Austin-based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners; actress Scarlett Johansson; Austin-based venture capital firm 8VC General Partner Joe Lonsdale; San Francisco-based venture capital firm Jazz Venture Partners; Dr. Mark Hyman; former PepsiCo Inc. chairwoman and CEO and current Amazon.com Inc. board member Indra Nooyi; Vital Proteins founder and CEO Kurt Seidensticker; Thrive Market co-founder and CEO Nick Green; former Whole Foods Market Inc. co-CEO Walter Robb; former professional tennis player and U.S. Open winner Andy Roddick; model and actress Brooklyn Decker and model and actress Cindy Crawford.
HumanCo closed a $15 million series A funding round in January 2020. Karp said he and his colleagues plan to raise “a much bigger series B round” of funding in late 2022.
Karp said the deliberate strategy of attracting well-known business leaders, celebrities and influencers as HumanCo investors brings the company “benefits that money cannot buy” in the “very competitive” CPG sector.
The CEO vets the investors who join the company’s cap table. Each of them, he said, shares a passion for delivering healthier food and beverage products to consumers.
“They care about our mission,” he said. “That’s why they invested. They are not paid ambassadors. They are not paid spokespeople.”
Such big names help HumanCo cut through the distractions that exist on social media platforms, for example, and expand the company’s reach, Karp said.
Johansson, for instance, “wants to feed healthier food to her family,” the CEO said.
The Academy Award-nominated actress in April became creative director for Snow Days pizza bites, HumanCo’s first incubated brand that the company launched in March.
Snow Days pizza bites are organic and grain- and gluten-free, and contain seven vegetables, grass-fed cheese, apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
Karp and HumanCo President Ross Berman co-founded the company in 2019.
The company’s acquisition of Against The Grain Gourmet Foods LLC in Vermont will fuel that business’ manufacturing, marketing, sales and product innovation teams, the HumanCo CEO said.
“It’s a family-owned business that partnered with us, and we want to take it to the next level,” Karp said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Tom Cain, who co-founded Against the Grain in 2005 with his wife, Nancy, told the Brattleboro Reformer in August, “We’re really excited,” adding, “We started talking to them at the beginning of the year. It’s been a pretty long courtship.”
HumanCo currently employs 22. Karp projects hiring roughly 10 people during the coming 12 months for the holding company and its portfolio businesses, he said.
Nine employees are based in Austin and work out of its space at 98 San Jacinto Blvd. downtown. People must be vaccinated to work at the office, Karp said. Employees wear masks while there, he said.
Other HumanCo employees are based in places including Chicago, Florida and Los Angeles.
Karp is considering looking for larger office space as the company expands.
HumanCo generates annual revenue “in the multiple eight figures” and is “in aggressive growth mode.” He declined to share whether the company is profitable.
The CEO said he expects HumanCo “to go public in a few years.”
A blank-check company co-sponsored by HumanCo and CAVU Venture Partners in December began trading on the Nasdaq. That special purpose acquisition company, HumanCo Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: HMCOU), aims to merge with a U.S. health and wellness business and take it public.
