Kevin Saliba

One of my agentic commerce predictions for 2026 in this recent Forbes piece: Matt Nichols, General Partner at Commerce Ventures, notes that the mechanics are already in motion. Looking ahead, he predicts that this year, "Agentic commerce transaction volume reaches meaningful levels as consumers advance from research to buying on AI platforms. 2026 will be the year that transactions are completed in these platforms." To this prediction, Nichols adds another: retailers will be forced to build "super-feeds" specifically for AI platforms. “These data feeds may involve monetary transactions that could include payments to AI platforms or payments to the retailer/brand (depending on balance of power).” https://lnkd.in/g65RAerA

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Let's dispel the myth of the overnight success in CPG. I often hear people say that company just came out of nowhere and now they are having this huge exit. The reality is the founder, team and investors have toiled away in obscurity for many years before that huge exit. I think the reason think they are an overnight success is because of the frequency illusion. Once you notice something or are focused on that thing, you will see it a lot more. In the last few years before an exit, it feels like the brand is everywhere because they have finally hit strong brand awareness and we notice them more. Let's not belittle all the blood, sweat and tears that the founder and team put into building the company by calling them an overnight success. There are no overnight successes in CPG Here are some examples of the time from founding to exit for many of the larger exits over the past year: Bachan's (12 years) Beatbox Bev (14 years) Daily Harvest (10 years) Dr. Squatch (12 years) Good Culture (10 years) Good Crisp (10 years) Once Upon a Farm (10 years) Poppi (10 years) Siete (11 years) Simple Mills (12 years)

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We're excited to share Timber Grove Ventures investment in Jampack AI. Wholesale operations for CPG brands are workflow-dense, error-prone, and chronically underserved by software. A single PO can touch ten disconnected systems before it's resolved while the status quo is spreadsheets, email chains, and tools that don't talk to each other. Matteo Rossant lived this challenge helping scale N!CK'S from $0 to $40M in revenue. That operator DNA shows up in the product: Jampack's agentic workflows automate the entire operational layer, meeting brands where they are without ripping out existing systems. In just a few months, they're processing $500M in annualized wholesale volume. We’re proud to partner with Matteo, Rezi Tsulukidze, and the entire Jampack team alongside Maveron. If you are a high growth CPG brand scaling in retail please reach out! Full article in the comments below.

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Excited to announce Timber Grove Ventures' investment in Jampack AI Operational complexity has quietly destroyed some of the most culturally significant consumer brands. I’ve seen it firsthand, growing up in a family-owned food business and later investing in iconic consumer brands. Consumer demand is meaningless if operations cannot support it. Jampack AI changes that. Their agentic workflows automate wholesale operations end to end, giving brands the infrastructure they need to scale and endure. We’re proud to back Matteo Rossant, Rezi Tsulukidze, and the entire Jampack team in their Seed round alongside Maveron. If you’re a high-growth consumer brand navigating operational complexity, I’d love to connect. Press release here: https://lnkd.in/ea54Cb4M

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It was a pleasure to have Conor Sheridan, founder of Nory, on The Samaipata Podcast. Conor’s story is that of a restaurateur turned software entrepreneur. Before Nory, Conor founded Mad Egg, a Dublin-based fried chicken restaurant chain. Living the industry’s operational chaos and margin pressure first-hand made him laser-focused on solving the bottlenecks operators deal with every day. Nory is bringing real intelligence into hospitality operations and showing how AI can drive tangible impact in an industry that has long been underserved by technology. During the conversation, Conor shared how Nory evolved from a set of spreadsheets built for one restaurant into a platform now used by major multi-location chains across Europe. With their recently announced Series B, they now have even more room to keep pushing the product forward and scaling into new markets. Proud to back Conor Sheridan and the Nory team at Samaipata! Link to the episode in the comments.

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Jennifer Garner's Once Upon a Farm Raises $198M in IPO at $724M Valuation — Organic Baby Food Brand Bets Refrigeration Disrupts Shelf-Stable Category Once Upon a Farm, the organic children's food company co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner and former Annie's CEO John Foraker, raised nearly $198 million in its U.S. IPO, pricing 11 million shares at $18 each. According to The Independent, the offering values the Berkeley-based company at approximately $724 million, or roughly 3.6x trailing twelve-month revenue of $202 million. The stock trades on the NYSE under ticker OFRM. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan led the offering, positioning the IPO as a test case for whether celebrity-backed CPG brands can succeed in public markets after Jessica Alba's Honest Company disappointed investors. The wholesale strategy centers on refrigeration infrastructure as a category wedge. Once Upon a Farm installed 2,800 proprietary coolers in baby aisles that historically carried only shelf-stable products from legacy brands like Gerber. Those coolers generate 61% incremental category growth, making retailers eager to expand placement. The company operates in 20,000+ retail doors with 430,000 points of distribution across major partners including Target, Walmart, Kroger, and Whole Foods. Target has been particularly critical - the retailer expanded Once Upon a Farm's presence significantly in recent years, giving the brand premium placement in baby sections. Walmart's scale provides volume, while Whole Foods offers credibility with organic-focused consumers. The refrigerated model requires deeper retailer commitment than shelf-stable products, but once installed, those coolers create switching costs competitors can't easily replicate. Revenue grew from $8 million in 2018 to $202 million in the trailing twelve months through June 2025 - a 65% compound annual growth rate. Founders Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz started in 2015 selling cold-pressed pouches at farmers markets before Foraker and Garner joined as co-founders in 2017. Non-pouch products launched in 2024 including dry baby snacks, refrigerated oat bars, and frozen meals now represent 22% of the portfolio but drove 50% of recent growth. The dry baby snacks line immediately became the number one velocity baby snack brand in the U.S. Gross margins sit around 40-44% with improving contribution margins, though the company still posted a $48 million net loss and $7.2 million adjusted EBITDA loss, narrowed from $14 million in 2022. Foraker built Annie's from scrappy organic mac-and-cheese into an $820 million General Mills acquisition by disrupting Kraft. He's running the same playbook against Gerber, betting public market investors have patience for the cash burn while he executes.

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Cap Table Engineering #9: Participating Preferred is not inherently evil! Let’s talk about one of the most discussed lightning rods in venture finance. Most normal deals are convertible preferred, meaning investors get the better of (a) their liquidation preference or (b) the value of their equity if they convert to common stock. Participating preferred is different. It’s often seen as “double dipping” because investors get their liquidation preference back first and then participate pro rata in the remaining proceeds, starting with the next dollar out. That creates returns greater than 1x even when exits happen well below the last round valuation. This structure has become a punching bag in clickbait posts hating on the VC model. But let’s be real. This is not standard, not market, and barely a thing. I’ve done hundreds of deals, seen thousands, and I can count participating preferred deals that actually closed on one hand. I can only think of two that weren’t also in deeply distressed situations. Still, it serves a rare purpose. Participating preferred can unlock deals that otherwise don’t get done. It gives new money a path to real upside without erasing old liquidation preferences. New investors might pass if they have to wait too long behind old prefs to see returns. Old investors might block a deal if they lose their prefs altogether. Participating preferred can split the difference and get everyone’s signature. But none of this works if the team isn’t motivated. If the path to upside is too long, people start looking elsewhere. There are two levers that can help: 1. Founders or key team putting in new cash In some cases, especially where founders have previously taken out secondary, they should be expected to invest alongside the deal. That investment becomes their incentive. If the deal is good enough for outside money, it should be good enough for them. If their return is on new money in, it reduces the urgency to create fast upside on common equity. 2. Phantom stock or a similar team pool Give the team a real chance to win. This could mean participating with a small fixed percentage to the team as early as the first dollar out. Done right, this creates a world where investors get made whole and the team still has something meaningful to fight for with a path to serious upside if they knock it out of the park. So don’t be afraid of VC because participating preferred exists. Be afraid of participating preferred in normal deals because it’s not market and can be predatory. In distressed, complex, or highly constrained deals, it can be a useful tool when used carefully. Next up: different types of warrants and how they can be used to close the gap in tricky rounds.

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Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana

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The recent recall of 141 ready meals across Irish supermarkets highlights just how critical supply chain transparency remains. That’s why we’re proud to represent Genuine Marketing Group Inc. — the team behind ZPTAG®, a blockchain-powered traceability platform built with IBM. ZPTAG® enables real-time tracking from source to shelf, with secure, batch-level product authentication. Had it been in place, the recall could have been faster, more targeted, and far less disruptive. As Genuine Marketing Group Inc. scales, we believe the future of product safety is becoming smarter, more efficient, and fully accountable — benefiting brands, regulators, and consumers alike. Congrats to Chuck Chastain, Greg Needham, and Brad Lim-Senesac for leading the way. We're proud to be part of the journey. #ZPTAG #GMG #IvyCapitalPartners #FoodSafety #Traceability #Blockchain #IBMBlockchain #SupplyChainInnovation

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