LOS ANGELES, Jan. 16, 2024 — Meaningful Partners LLC (“Meaningful”) announced today the initial closing of a strategic growth investment in M2 Ingredients and Om Mushroom Superfood, (“M2”, “Om” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated nutraceuticals platform focused on organic functional mushrooms, providing clinically-proven whole body health benefits including cognitive, immunity and stress relief/sleep support. Meaningful Partners led the funding round and was joined by existing investors White Road Investments and InvestEco. The investment will help accelerate the distribution and marketing of Om as well as scale manufacturing to meet customer demand via their new state-of-the-art growing facility.
“Meaningful Partners is keenly aligned with our purpose driven company – M2 Ingredients/Om Mushroom strives to harness the amazing power of mushrooms for healthier lives”, said Dr. Sandra Carter, Founder and CEO of the Company. “Meaningful’s network, capital support and strategic vision in conjunction with our current investors and team will position M2 Ingredients to lead the functional mushroom industry in science and scale as an ingredient supplier and to continue to produce high quality, highly efficacious and innovative products through Om Mushroom Superfood. Our company is built on the expertise and passion of our team who have pioneered the functional mushroom industry and we are proud to have Meaningful Partners support our team and mission.”
M2 Ingredients is a vertically integrated nutraceuticals platform, leveraging the power of 100% organic whole food functional mushrooms through their B2B platform, M2 Ingredients, and their in-house superfood supplement brand, Om. The Company operates the largest organic functional mushroom growing facility in North America, growing ten species including Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, Turkey Tail and Cordyceps, with seven patented strains. The Company has built a new 155,00 square foot growing facility in Vista, California, to open in Q1 2024, which will significantly increase growing capacity to satisfy its increasing customer demand.
Om uses M2’s high quality mushrooms to deliver innovative and clinically-proven supplements, powders, gummies, drink mixes and protein powders across the natural, direct-to-consumer and e-commerce channels. This new investment will support the Company’s execution of its strategic vision, including the strengthening of its leading market position across existing channels as well as expanding distribution to reach new customers. Functional mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years and have been increasingly used in natural/better-for-you supplements as well as food & beverages for their health benefits, including improved memory and focus (nootropics), immunity, stress relief and sleep support and more.
“At Meaningful Partners, we invest in companies at the intersection of Purpose and Profit so could not be more excited to partner with Sandra, her high performing management team and the existing investor group to help execute on the Company’s next stage of growth,” said Jake Capps, co-Founder and Managing Partner of Meaningful Partners. “M2 has been at the forefront of providing the highest quality and clinically-backed functional mushrooms for over a decade and with their new, state-of-the-art growing facility will be well positioned to support existing and new customer demand in a category that grew over 50% last year. Additionally, the Company’s Om brand has the highest growth of any other scaled brand in the functional mushroom category with a massive opportunity to further increase distribution across every channel of trade to reach customers that are increasingly seeking to embrace natural and clinically-backed superfood products to help improve whole body health outcomes.”
Blair Kellison, part of the Meaningful Partner’s Expert Community of seasoned operators across the consumer sector, will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors of M2. Blair brings more than 30 years of experience in the natural and better-for-you food, beverage and supplement space, formerly serving as the CEO of Traditional Medicinals.
Buchalter represented Meaningful Partners as legal counsel in connection with the investment. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck represented M2 Ingredients as legal counsel. Harrison & Co. advised M2 Ingredients related to the financing round. Terms of the investment are not disclosed.
About M2 Ingredients
M2 Ingredients, founded in 2010 and based in Carlsbad, CA, is a leading producer of 100% organic, whole food mushroom powders with the full spectrum of bioactive compounds to support daily health, sports performance, recovery and cognition, with a consumer-packaged-goods brand, Om, that uses their high quality mushroom powders and proprietary formulas to sell easy-to-consumer, multi-factor wellness products utilizing an omni-channel strategy with nationwide distribution.
About Meaningful Partners LLC
Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX, invests in purposeful consumer products and services businesses that have earned customer trust and loyalty, demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders, and are led by management teams empowering positive purpose and performance. Meaningful Partners makes control and minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in lower-middle market and high-growth companies. The firm is led by an experienced investor and operator management team that leverages an Expert Community of 45+ CEO/Founders and discipline experts with over 850+ years of collective experience who bring relevant domain expertise to help accelerate the growth and impact at our partner companies. More at www.meaningfulpartners.com.
About InvestEco
InvestEco Capital Corp has a 20-year history of investing in growing North American businesses. Since the launch of InvestEco Sustainable Food Fund I in 2012, InvestEco has focused on promoting Canadian and US businesses seeking to improve health outcomes and reduce the environmental impacts of the overall food ecosystem. Learn more at https://investeco.com.
SOURCE Meaningful Partners
