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]]>The $1.8 trillion global wellness market, coupled with advancements in biometric tracking and health technology, has investors banking on the future of wellness.
Renowned cyclist and endurance athlete Lance Armstrong’s Next Ventures is the latest VC fund to get in on the wellness craze, targeting $100 million — its first fund in almost five years — to invest in whole-person health, preventive care and diagnostics.
Next Ventures managing partner Julian Eison, was forthright:
“We said, hey, this whole consumerization of health is omnipresent,” Eison told PitchBook, which reported on Next Ventures’ plans to write pre-seed, seed and Series A checks with an average check size of $2 million.
It’s a viewpoint shared by other leading investors and experts.
As Jon Canarick of North Castle Partners, Mark Grabowski of Snapdragon Capital Partners and Lance Dietz of KB Partners shared during Athletech News’ DISRUPT 2023 video series, there is an overall sense of optimism surrounding the health, fitness and wellness markets.
“I think almost universally there’s growth in consumer expenditure in health and wellness across multiple categories,” Grabowski said, noting that the industry as a whole is on an “upward trajectory.”
Wearables Track More Than Just Fitness
He also indicated that health and fitness trackers have even more runway, especially with consumers embracing preventive wellness practices. Advancing technology also means that wearables no longer cater to elite athletes or weekend warriors. Instead, consumers of all ages and in any health condition can track their health metrics, widening the available consumer market.
“When you think of everything from blood testing to stool samples, there you’re actually addressing some different issues,” Grabowski pointed out. “It’s not about, ‘Am I optimizing my workout performance?’ It’s about allergies, chronic issues, immune responses and other things that people are dealing with.”
Investors are taking note, with Ultrahuman’s multi-device ecosystem the latest funding recipient. The company just secured $35 million in a Series B to advance its health monitoring endeavors, which include a smart ring, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a ‘Blood Vision’ system and an upcoming home health device that assesses environmental impacts on well-being.
Next Ventures’ portfolio touts some notable health and wellness names, including smart ring brand Oura, AI wearable company Humane and Genopets, a move-to-earn game. The VC fund also invested in Utah-based Amp Human in 2019, maker of PR Lotion, which merged with Momentous, a ‘human performance” supplement brand.
As for Oura, the smart ring maker is expected to enter a “health-focused” chapter, having recently welcomed an executive from the Apple Health team and signing a deal to make its wearable device FSA/HSA eligible.
Wellness CPGs Gain Steam, Too
Tech may always be a hot area for its jaw-dropping capabilities that seem to advance each week, but good old consumer packaged goods have been receiving the attention of investors, too — especially those in the wellness categories.
Even major retailers like Target are banking on the wellness wave, introducing over 1,000 health-supporting products across all verticals. For good reason, too: consumers have not only become more health-conscious, but GLP-1 users have redirected their spending away from unhealthy items and toward wellness purchases.
Bloom Nutrition, a supplement brand in the greens and superfoods category recently scored a major investment from C4 maker Nutrabolt.
Health and wellness guru/A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow, no stranger to all things green juice and longevity-supporting, is also eyeing the power of products with wide appeal. The goop founder has turned feeling good into a profitable brand, catering to the masses with a new line of budget-friendly wellness and beauty products, a departure from goop’s higher-priced items.
Paltrow’s Los Angeles-based VC firm, Kinship Ventures, has reportedly sought to raise $75 million for its debut fund, eyeing early-stage consumer goods and tech companies.
Over on the East Coast, Humble Growth, a N.Y.-based growth equity firm launched by an all-star team that includes RxBar founder Peter Rahal, secured over $312 million for its debut. Earlier this year, Humble Growth acquired a significant minority stake in Momentous in a deal worth $32 million.
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]]>Humble Growth, a consumer-focused investment firm concentrating on disruptive wellness brands in the food, beverage, health, beauty, vitamins, supplements and apparel space, has acquired a significant minority stake in Momentous, a fast-growing human performance and nutrition company. The deal is worth $32 million, Athletech News has learned.
The strategic partnership sees Momentous co-founders Jeff Byers and Erica Good continuing to lead the company together as CEO and president, respectively. Last year, the Park City, Utah-based brand tripled its revenue from 2022 and projects to double its revenue again this year.
Next up, Momentous plans to open a new Los Angeles-based headquarters, grow its staff and advance the customer experience of its DTC model.
The human performance brand recently released an updated version of its website, allowing consumers to explore products based on their desired “pillar of performance” — such as cognitive function, sleep, athletic performance, foundational health and hormone support.
The timing is ideal, as Americans are eagerly spending hard-earned dollars on vitamins and supplements, especially those in the performance, recovery and mood genres.
NY-based Humble Growth, led by RxBar co-founder Peter Rahal, debuted a $312 million fund last fall, with a who’s who list of investors including Nestlé Health Science, Verlinvest, BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole, Stonyfield Farm founder and CEO Gary Hirshberg, IT Cosmetics co-founder Paulo Lima and Ainsworth Pet Nutrition founder Sean Lang.
Not Your Traditional Supplement Brand
Aligned with Humble Growth’s mission to partner with entrepreneurs and brands promoting health and wellness, Momentous was launched in 2018 to offer high-quality, science-backed products (seven of which tout the Informed-Sport certification) to meet the needs of elite performers.
Human performance is an area that Byers knows well as a former NFL offensive lineman. After retiring from the NFL, the Momentous CEO became aware of a major gap in the supplement space. He first launched Amp Human, creating the brand’s popular PR Lotion product before acquiring the Momentous brand in 2021 and merging it into the company.
Instead of marketing gimmicks, Byers’ approach to supplements is to rewrite the current industry script with an expert approach, tapping the talent of Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Andy Galpin and other health and wellness practitioners.
“Supplements to me have a weird connotation, so our goal is to build the ‘anti-supplement supplement company,'” he told ATN in an exclusive interview last year. “We want to be your trusted partner in life optimization.”
As part of being a trusted partner, Momentous is listening — and delivering. With its finger on the pulse of consumer desires, the company will launch a pre-workout later this year that has been in development for years and includes Department of Defense research funding.
“Our goal was to develop a pre-workout formula that delivers cognitive and physical performance benefits but without synthetic sources of caffeine or stimulants, and we’re excited to bring this product to our customers who have been asking for it,” Byers said.
The brand also plans to introduce additional products that are geared toward the needs of women.
From the NFL to Consumers
Passionate about targeting “mindset” consumers who seek quality products to optimize their health and performance, Byers’ position has led Momentous to secure nearly 200 pro and college sports teams partnerships, including a deal to create a custom recovery product for an NFL team, along with millions worth of innovation contracts with the Department of Defense.
The brand has also attracted pro athlete shareholders such as NFL Pro Bowlers Luke Kuechly, Kyle Rudolph, and Ndamukong Suh, former professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, Ironman Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay and more.
Byers remarked that joining with Humble Growth on the heels of exponentially growing Momentous will mean an upward trajectory for the brand, which has also earned the title of Official Supplements and Sports Nutrition Partner of CrossFit and the CrossFit Games.
“We were immediately drawn to Humble Growth and its partners’ exceptional track record in successfully operating and scaling nutrition and supplement companies,” Byers said. “Their lived experience positions them as invaluable thought partners during our continued growth, and I’m confident that Humble Growth’s passion and expertise for consumer products in this space is going to usher us into an exciting new chapter.”
This article has been updated.
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]]>The post RxBar, Orgain Founders Raise $312M for Firm Targeting Consumer Wellness Brands appeared first on Athletech News.
]]>Humble Growth, an N.Y.-based growth equity investment firm focusing on visionary consumer brands, has been established by three leading innovators: Andrew Abraham, CEO and creator of Orgain, RxBar founder Peter Rahal and Nick Giannuzzi, a consumer lawyer.
The firm has secured over $312 million for its debut, with notable investors including Nestlé Health Science, Verlinvest, BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole, Stonyfield Farm founder and CEO Gary Hirshberg, IT Cosmetics co-founder Paulo Lima and Ainsworth Pet Nutrition founder Sean Lang.
“We’re honored to officially launch Humble Growth and work closely with founders to propel their brands to new heights,” Abraham said.
Unlike other newly-launched entities, Humble Growth and its founders aren’t afraid to acknowledge their humble beginnings and failures along their paths to success.
“We’ve built, scaled and exited our own brands and understand the ongoing challenges founders face when growing their brands firsthand,” said Abraham. “With Humble Growth, we’re taking that knowledge and working alongside founders to support their mission and bring an empathetic perspective to scaling operations.”
Humble Growth will partner with entrepreneurs and brands that promote healthier lifestyles and assist them in entering new growth phases. The trio of founders say their collective experience will be beneficial to entrepreneurs in avoiding the common pitfalls that many experience when starting a business — a touchpoint that Hirshberg wishes he had available years ago.
“When the idea of Humble Growth began gaining momentum, I was thrilled to jump in as a founding investor,” Hirshberg said. “We are building a true win-win-win model for the investors, the investees and the business. I would have killed to have had a Humble Growth available to support Stonyfield and help bring not only critical funding but also seasoned guidance during our growth years.”
Don Kerrigan, CEO of Nestlé Health Science U.S., noted that the fund is built by transformative founders and includes an impressive lineup of limited partners who are fully immersed in the industry.
“Humble Growth represents one of the most disruptive and coherent investing strategies we have seen in consumer growth,” Kerrigan said.
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