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Sponsors

Title Sponsor

Investment Banking Partner

Whipstitch Capital is the largest, independent investment bank in the U.S. solely focused on the better-for-you consumer sector. We are full-service bankers providing unmatched experience, industry knowledge, relationships and ability to execute optimal transaction outcomes. Since 2004, the Whipstitch team has closed over 100 transactions and provides private placement and buy-side / sell-side mergers & acquisitions advisory services for leading consumer products companies in the healthy, organic, natural and/or functional food, beverage, supplements, personal care and related retail companies. The Whipstitch team has completed transactions with innovative consumer companies over the past 10+ years, including KeVita, Core Nutrition, Purple Carrot, Country Archer, Blake’s All Natural Foods, GoodBelly, Yasso, Spindrift, Lesser Evil Snacks, Essentia Water, Saffron Road, Fermented Sciences (Flying Embers), The Switch, Otter Creek Brewing, Peeled Snacks and more. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter highlighting M&A and private placement transactions announced during the previous week at www.whipstitchcapital.com/newsletter

Ingredients Supplier/Distributor Partner

Analyze. Invest. Develop. Partner. For over 25 years AIDP, (Advanced Ingredient’s for Dietary Products) has been distributing specialty and functional ingredients to the nutrition, food, and beverage markets. At AIDP, we specialize in clinically researched brands that provide benefits for immune health, cognitive wellness, digestive health, joint support, healthy aging, cosmeceuticals and more. Our novel brands are carefully evaluated based on intellectual property, clinical support, sustainable sourcing methods, safety, and rigorous quality control. At AIDP, we work with market leading brands as well as emerging companies. We are there to help you at every step and meet every challenge you have with innovative solutions to grow your business. Our global footprint and distinguished suppliers enable us to react fast and be responsive to your specialty and commodity ingredient needs. Time and again, we helped early-stage brands become market leaders.

Recruiting Partner

Creative Alignments is a recruiting company that partners with quickly growing brands in the natural products/CPG and technology industries. Whether they are creating a great place to work, innovating products or services that make the world a better place, or breaking barriers, we work as an extension of their internal team to help them hire the talent they need to reach business goals. Our hourly Time-Based Recruiting model means that we are aligned with our client’s specific needs, rather than a commission for each hire. This hourly model typically saves about 50% on recruiting costs, compared to traditional contingency recruiters and has allowed us to partner with 100’s of growing brands over the past 10 years, from RXBAR to Kodiak Cakes to NextFoods and more.

Legal & Regulatory Partner

At Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), a 600+ attorney national law firm, our commitment to the natural products industry runs deep. DWT’s team of 40+ Food + Beverage lawyers spends all day, every day helping food and beverage clients seize opportunities and solve the unique challenges of their industry. Our Food Venture Financing team works with emerging “seed” (0-$2mm annual revenue) and “scaling” ($2mm-$20mm) food and beverage brands and the investors who fund them. Our clients are based in all of the major food innovation hubs in the United States, from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. We created DWT’s Food Venture Legal Lab specifically for them, to provide a one-stop shop for all of their food industry legal needs. DWT took a leadership role in forming Naturally Bay Area, the first regional affiliate of Natural Boulder. We’re helping the next affiliates of the Naturally Network launch in Chicago, Austin, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, and the Pacific Northwest. Whether you’re an emerging food and beverage or natural products company looking to stand out, or an investor in the sector, we can help you craft a recipe for success.

Fulfillment Partner

Flowspace drives efficient, effective fulfillment for brands in the food, beverage, and supplements space thanks to its partnerships with Fresh Del Monte, Pod Foods, and retailers everywhere.

 

Flowspace’s software platform specializes in capabilities food brands require, such as lot tracking, first-expiring, first-out (FEFO) logic, shelf-life expiry date (SLED), and more.

 

The platform also offers inventory and order management, real-time visibility, and actionable insights that aid in demand planning and supply chain optimization.

 

Integrated within a network of 150+ fulfillment locations, Flowspace powers efficient, reliable fulfillment for hundreds of leading brands. Learn more at www.flow.space.

Flavor Partner

Consumers today want it all and they expect their food and beverages to do more for them. Brands have to balance the demands of great taste, regulatory hurdles and consumer acceptance. The experts at FONA can help. Founded more than 30 years ago, FONA creates and produces complete taste solutions for food, beverage, and nutrition companies around the world. A unique proposition in the flavor industry, FONA prides itself on a high-tech, high-touch vision—helping our customers grow through both cutting-edge technology and personal customer service. From ideation to launch, we create a seamless, winning path for our customers, both large and small. Design, develop and scale up using our Innovation Studios in Geneva, IL and Irvine, CA.

Legal Partner

The Food & Beverage group at Foster Garvey offers the depth of industry knowledge and experience of a boutique firm with the resources and breadth of a full-service mid-sized firm. Supported by corporate securities, intellectual property, regulatory, and entertainment attorneys, the group services the needs of entrepreneurial emerging food and beverage brands, established corporate brands and the angel, venture capital, private equity and celebrity investors who fund those brands. Our attorneys represent early-stage ventures to established businesses, including packaged food and beverage companies, subscription box companies, candy manufacturers, processors and distributors, restaurants, breweries, wineries, distilleries and retail stores, as well as individual investors and venture capital and private equity funds who invest in the industry.

Amazon Partner

Front Row partners with leading beauty, wellness and other consumer brands to accelerate their ecommerce growth. We leverage our capabilities and proprietary technology to design, market, distribute, and accelerate brands on a global scale. Individually, our capabilities are powerful. Together, they’re even more dynamic — moving at the speed of commerce to uncover new growth opportunities.

Insurance Partner

Heffernan Insurance Brokers, established in 1988, is a leading independent insurance brokerage firm in the United States. With a nationwide and London UK presence, we offer a wide range of insurance and financial services to businesses and individuals. Our consultative and collaborative approach ensures effective risk management and cost control through innovative insurance products and services tailored for the food industry. We specialize in serving the unique needs of the food & beverage industry, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and agriculture sectors. With our expertise and exceptional customer service, Heffernan is dedicated to protecting our clients’ businesses. For more information, visit our website at www.heffins.com. 

SEO, SEM & Shopify Partner

At Know Agency, we specialize in providing supplement and health companies with SEO,  PPC, and digital marketing expertise that gets you connected and resonating with your customers. Rely on us to give you proven SEO and search strategies based on Google data. We crunch the numbers, analyze the search terms, and audit your digital brand, giving you honest professional feedback on what you need to do to meet your goals. Our deep knowledge of the supplement and health niche gives you a competitive advantage so you can stand out and get noticed by Google and your prospects.

Innovation & Commercialization Partner

PLT Health Solutions is a discoverer, developer, and marketer of high-quality, scientifically-supported ingredient solutions for the natural products, food & beverage, and cosmeceuticals markets. PLT’s ability to drive product development and clinical strategy based on the specific needs of leading consumer brands is a key reason why both major manufacturers and early-stage ingredient innovators choose to work so closely with us. With 70 years of experience, we have the expertise and infrastructure to help you successfully commercialize your ingredient or technology and access many of the leading consumer products companies across the world.

Branding Partner

Pure Branding is a brand strategy, research and growth marketing consultancy that works exclusively with emerging and legacy dietary supplement brands. Since 1999, they have transformed science-driven supplement companies into beloved brands through smart strategy, research & activation. Pure Branding has led business-transforming strategies for dozens of leading dietary supplement brands including Gaia Herbs, MegaFood (acquired by Pharmavite), Nature’s Sunshine, NeoCell (acquired by Clorox), Nordic Naturals and Standard Process. Pure Branding led the brand strategy for and was an early investor in the digitally-native, personalized nutrition startup Persona Nutrition, acquired in 2019 by Nestlé Health Science.

Technology Commercialization Partner

Specialty Nutrition Consulting, Inc. is a nutrition brand-building firm focused on commercializing innovative, IP-protected nutritional and health-promoting technologies. SNG acts as co-development partner with large consumer products and nutrition companies to rapidly commercialize nutrition innovations, represents academic institutions and individual inventors to find new commercial applications for their inventions, and develops its own brands for commercial launch in the commercial market. The professionals of Specialty Nutrition Group, Inc. have been responsible for launching new nutraceuticals products with current annual retail sales for over $1.1 billion.

Performance Insights Partner

For more than 20 years, SPINS – the leading wellness-focused analytics and consulting firm for trends and performance in the natural space – has been on a mission to increase the presence and accessibility of Natural and better-for-you products that help people live their healthiest and best lives and drive sustainable production practices in North America. From our founding, our data and industry definitions have become the common language of the Natural Products Industry, helping brands communicate their growth for retailers to scale their distribution and helping retailers understand and maintain their points of difference. Today, both retailers and brands look to SPINS to capture early indicators of progressive shopper preferences based on high-growth new products and shifting category dynamics – leveraging SPINS Product Intelligence to understand the specific characteristics driving buying behavior across the most comprehensive collection of health & wellness attributes in the industry. To learn more, visit www.spins.com

Contract Manufacturing /Auditing Services Partner

With 350+ years of collective experience, Whole Brain Consulting provides teams of experts, specializing in: QA/QC, Contract Manufacturer Source & Selection, Supply Chain, Operations, Logistics, R&D and Private Equity Firm Due-Diligence.