Nestle and yFood
One of the direct-to-consumer food technology businesses, Yfood, which was founded on the idea of meal replacement drinks a decade ago, is growing. The giant in the food and beverage industry, Nestle, has purchased 49.5% of the company’s shares and has the right to purchase the remaining shares of Yfood in the coming years. Although the financial details of the agreement are not being made public by the parties involved, TechCrunch has learned that Nestle is investing €215 million in Yfood as part of its acquisition, which values the company at €469 million .
All of Yfood’s investment backers—including Felix Capital, dairy juggernaut Fonterra, agri-startup VC Five Seasons, and several others—will sell their shares to Nestle as part of the investment acquisition. Ben Kremer and Noel Bollmann, Yfood’s co-founders and co-heads, will continue to hold onto their 50.05% of the company’s shares and manage it on their own. In the following three years, Nestle will have the option to purchase the outstanding shares.
For investors in Munich-based Yfood, which was formed in 2017 and had only collected $22.6 million in outside funding, this is a sizable departure.
The transaction, which was first disclosed as being in progress at the beginning of March and was officially finalized today, excludes any additional investments in Yfood, which is already profitable and has been for some time.
The Yfood purchase is a positive move in that regard, especially in light of previous famous instances of deals in the food tech sector that did not turn out well for businesses and their investors.
