Serenity Kids—a leading shelf-stable pouched baby food brand—announced it had closed a $52 million minority investment and strategic partnership with Stride Consumer Partners. The growth capital from Stride will drive investment in several areas of Serenity Kids’ business, especially marketing, talent, and innovation. The funding and strategic partnership with Stride will support Serenity Kids’ goal to improve the well-being of all children.
Serenity Kids was launched and is led by co-founders Serenity and Joe Carr. They could not find baby food options that were low in sugar and contained balanced macronutrients, so they decided to create one of their own.
Since launching in 2018, Serenity Kids quickly became the fastest-selling shelf-stable baby food pouch brand across all grocery channels. This brand offers nutrient-dense products that contain high-quality proteins and healthy fats in its pouches, puffs, and toddler formula. It has distribution in over 18,000 stores, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Publix, Amazon, Thrive Market, and more.
Serenity Kids has seen 71% year-over-year retail revenue growth last year compared to the year before, which can be attributed to strong product quality and differentiation, unique innovation, and a commitment to the highest nutritional, ethical, and taste standards that parents are looking for nowadays. With Ethically Sourced Meat Pouches as a top-performing product line, Serenity Kids has been elevating this category by providing healthy meat-based protein solutions for little ones that are drastically outperforming traditional fruit-based purees at natural and conventional retailers.
Serenity Kids offers baby food pouch varieties in five lines: World Explorers, Dairy-Free Smoothies, Ethically Sourced Meats, Organic Savory Veggies, and Purees with Bone Broth, and zero-sugar Grain Free Puffs, and a first-of-its-kind A2 Whole Milk Toddler Formula. These unique baby food recipes surface savory flavors early and set children up for a lifetime of healthy eating without early cravings for sugar. Plus, Serenity Kids emphasizes using premium-quality ingredients without antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, fillers, or major allergens. All Serenity Kids’ products are third-party tested for over 200 heavy metals and contaminants. They are made with ethically sourced, regeneratively farmed meats and Certified USDA Organic vegetables, herbs, and spices.
With this significant and timely financial investment, serenity and Joe Carr will maintain ownership and continue running the company.
Kirk Lin, Serenity Kids’ VP of Finance, played a major role in this transition, and Haynes & Boone served as the exclusive legal advisor to Serenity Kids. And Latham & Watkins LLP served as the exclusive legal advisor to Stride Consumer Partners.
KEY QUOTES:
“The current investment landscape is pretty dire, so our ability to attract this financing and partnership validates our differentiation, mission, and growth potential. We’re excited to pour more resources into our revolution that elevates children’s nutrition so that all future generations can thrive. We are profitable and were not seeking to raise funds, but when we met the Stride team we immediately connected with them and appreciated their approach to building strong sustainable brands. The Stride team’s proven track record partnering with companies like Yasso and Chomps makes us confident that they can help take us to the next level.”
– Joe Carr, President and Co-Founder of Serenity Kids
“We launched Serenity Kids to create superior products that give little ones the best start possible. Stride’s team has already been super collaborative, and we’re confident they’re the right partner to help propel our business into the next phase. We look forward to working with them to achieve our goal of helping babies grow up healthy, happy, and strong.”
– Serenity Carr
“In my 20 years of experience in growth equity investments, I have rarely seen a brand with such a consistent track record of winning at the shelf as Serenity Kids. We were impressed with the brand’s unique positioning and the team’s vision and passion to provide the highest quality, most nutrient-dense products for babies and toddlers. We look forward to supporting the Serenity Kids team on their continued expansion as they seek to transform the standard in baby and toddler food.”
– Juan Marcos Hill, Partner at Stride Consumer Partners
