How a Company Backed By Serena Williams Wants to Help You Eat Healthy
Superfoods company Daily Harvest, which already counts Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow as investors, raised a fresh $43 million in funding, and CEO Rachel Drori told Cheddar what she plans to do with the money.
“We are going to invest more in transitional organics,” she said. “By partnering with farmers who are today conventional and saying, ‘Hey, we’ll be along with you for this ride, it takes three years to transition from conventional to organic,’ we can increase the total pie of organic availability, therefore drive prices down.’”
Higher production costs are said to contribute to higher prices for organic foods, which can be hard to access for lower-income consumers. But the sector keeps growing anyway. The Organic Trade Association says that the market grew by $3.7 billion in 2016, making it a $47 billion industry. That drove it to a record 5.3 percent of all U.S. food sales.
Drori said her company differentiates itself by focusing on frozen snacks frozen.
“With our smoothies, you open it up, you see all the whole fruits and vegetables,” she said. “You fill it with liquid, you pop it in your blender. Then 30 seconds later you have something that was developed by a chef and a nutritionist.”
Daily Harvest’s latest round, led by Cheddar investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, also includes celebrity chef Bobby Flay and actress Haley Duff.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/daily-harvest-raises-43-million).
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
