Chicago startup Real Food Blends, a company that makes 100% real food for people with feeding tubes, has been acquired by Nutricia, a nutrition company that's owned by yogurt giant Danone.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but President and co-founder Tony Bombacino said Real Food Blends has been profitable since 2015 and has sold "tens of millions of dollars" of its feeding tube meals since the company started in 2014.
Real Food Blends raised just $600,000 in outside funding from a group of angel investors that included Jellyvision founder Harry Gottlieb, Jellyvision CEO Amanda Lannert, Listen's Jeff Cantalupo, and Lon Chow.
The startup was born out of Tony and his wife Julie's own struggles feeding their special needs son, AJ, who has epilepsy. AJ had adverse reactions to commercial formulas he was given through his feeding tube, so the Bombacinos started making their own meals for AJ with vegetables, fruit, quinoa and oatmeal.
The mixture was such a success with AJ that the husband and wife duo decided to launch their own business to help more children. Their 9-ounce packets include options like orange chicken, Carrots and Brown Rice; turkey, sweet potatoes and peaches; and eggs, apples and oats, which come blended and ready to consume for people on feeding tubes.
Tony said Real Food Blends was approached multiple times over the years about an acquisition, but the right partner never emerged. Today, with AJ now 9 years old, Tony said his care continues to get more complex, and the family was eyeing an acquirer who could help the startup continue to scale while reducing travel so Tony and Julie could spend more time with AJ.
"He's a healthy, happy kid. He goes to school every day," Tony said. "But he woke up the morning we announced the deal at 5 a.m. and had a seizure ... Our personal lives with AJ were getting more and more complex. That's when we really started to think it was time (for an acquisition)."
Julie and Tony will remain with the company in their current roles of CEO and president, respectively. Tony added that Nutricia will give the company a chance to grow and scale faster than ever, and ultimately help more kids like AJ.
"Were going to have a bigger platform now. We’re going to do (what we’ve been doing) but with a bigger microphone, at scale, and make a difference for more people," he said.
