The brains behind the snack giant Kind are now bringing their expertise to the investment space.
Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky unveiled Camino Partners earlier this month, an investment and incubation platform looking to help the next wave of entrepreneurs. The idea is to harness what made Kind -- which sold to Mars in 2020 for reportedly $5 billion -- so successful into a program that will fund the next successful consumer-facing brands. That's no easy task, according to Elle Lanning, managing director at Camino Partners.
She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Camino, and its plans with the $350 million it raised. She also talked about the overall consumer brand investing space, and what industry changes are likely on the horizon.
"The thesis is heavily rooted in our operating experience," Lanning said.
Lanning herself is a Kind alum. She worked at the company for over a decade, starting in the marketing department and ultimately becoming chief of staff. Once the company sold to Mars, Lanning said Lubetzky and the Kind team were trying to figure out their next move. "We've amassed this experience -- we have great talent from different stages and different functions along the way of Kind's growth," she said.
But the big question remains: what will Camino invest in? Past investments from earlier iterations of the platform include the snack brand Belgian Boys. As Lanning described it, the focus is on "value creation, from the sense [that] we're supporting products and services that better a consumer's life." That could be a better-for-you snack bar, but it could also be a wellness brand.
This fund comes at an interesting time. Money was flowing to consumer startups over the last few years, but things have begun to cool. In Lanning's eyes, the industry may have been too flush with cash, which made it nearly impossible for some companies to stand out. Camino, then, is a way to suss out the real next industry leaders.
But that may come at the expense of other brands -- and Lanning is aware of that. In fact, she thinks the next few years are going to be tough.
"I do believe that there will be some contraction," she said. "I think that [over] the next couple of years, you're going to see some brands that might have had early shoots of promise probably cease to exist."