Danone Turns to Fund Run by Two Women in Search for Next Kale
- French yogurt giant joins Campbell Soup in backing AccelFoods
- Large food and beverage companies struggling with tepid sales
Individual cartons of natural yoghurt sit in cardboard shipping trays on the production line in the Danone SA dairy product manufacturing plant in Lyubuchany, Russia, on Monday, April 25, 2016. Danone has injected cloudberries, amber-colored fruit grown in swamps and bogs, into its Actimel yogurt, while sister brand Activia has adopted a thick, peasant-style variant.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergDanone, the French yogurt giant grappling with sluggish sales, has turned to a venture capital firm that backs startups selling everything from snack bars containing cricket protein to tater tots made from cauliflower.
A unit of the company, Danone Ventures, has invested in AccelFoods, a fund run by two women that looks for upstart natural and organic brands that are stealing shelf space and sales from established food companies -- like Danone itself. Both companies confirmed the deal.