US: Consumer goods investment firm VMG closes $850m fund

  • 11 March 2021
  • Investor
The new VMG Growth Fund V brings the total of assets under management to $2.6 billion
From left: VMG general partners Robin Tsai, Wayne Wu, and Mike Mauzé

VMG Partners, a private equity firm that partners and invests in CPG businesses, has closed a new fund at its target and hard cap of $850 million, bringing the total assets under its management to nearly $2.6 billion. Sources closed to VMG said the closing of Growth Fund V happened within three months of fundraising.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VMG has been investing out of its Growth and Catalyst funds. The former focused on technology innovation for everyday life, and the latter on consumer brands across beauty and personal care, wellness, household, pet, food and beverage.

VMG Growth Fund V will continue to invest in entrepreneurial early- and late-stage consumer-focused companies to build iconic brands across the sectors it traditionally invests in mentioned above.

VMG general partner Mike Mauzé said: “VMG Partners was founded on our team’s mutual passion to build brands and support entrepreneurs. In the past fifteen years, VMG Partners has brought their expertise to the CPG space and during that time we have developed strong relationships with our investors. These long-term limited partners have been great assets and strategic mentors in building the VMG franchise.”

The company has exited all its portfolio companies in two of the preceding funds, VMG Growth I and II, with realised investments in Kind bars bought by Mars; nut-butter brand Justin’s, which was acquired by Hormel Foods; and Nature’s Bakery, acquired by Mars-owned Kind, to name just a few.

In addition, VMG had its third exit of its Growth Fund III – all in less than fifteen years as of the end of 2020.    

VMG general partner Robin Tsai said: “We’re excited to continue to partner with founders who inspire us. We deeply value their ambition, and their motivation to create opportunities for women, BIPOC, and other underrepresented communities. As we continue our mission to partner with founders to build prominent brands, our goal is to spearhead more diversity and inclusion in the CPG space.”

Since its inception in 2005, VMG has provided financial resources and strategic guidance to drive growth and value creation in more than 40 companies.

VMG general Partner Wayne Wu said: “Our passion at VMG is to support the broader consumer ecosystem of entrepreneurs, retailers, and global CPG strategics regarding where the consumer is going versus where they’ve been historically. Through our genuine and consistent efforts to support the broader consumer ecosystem, we’ll have the opportunity to partner with best-in-class founders and teams to build leading brands.”

PJT Park Hill served as placement agent for VMG Partners, and legal advice was provided by Latham & Watkins.