Houlihan Lokey Advises yfood

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that yfood, a leading Germany-based branded smart nutrition business, has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership with Nestlé as a new minority shareholder. The transaction was completed on 31 March 2023. The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.

Founded in 2017, yfood has grown rapidly to become the leading European smart nutrition brand. The company offers an exciting range of meal replacements including ready-to-drinks, powders, and bars. Products are well in line with global consumer mega trends around health and wellness, convenience, and innovation. yfood has a differentiated omnichannel model, underpinned by a large and fast-growing retail presence across leading European retailers, as well as strong D2C expertise.

With the backing of Nestlé, yfood will continue to operate as a standalone company. The Founders will remain as majority shareholders and lead the business going forward. Bringing Nestlé on board as an investor will further accelerate yfood’s international expansion outside of Germany and path to becoming a global brand.

Houlihan Lokey served as yfood’s exclusive financial advisor and assisted in initiating, structuring, and negotiating all aspects of the transaction on its behalf. This deal underscores Houlihan Lokey’s deep expertise working in the nutrition / better-for-you space following the sale of foodspring to Mars, SmartyPants to Unilever, Nuun to Nestlé Health Science, Care/of to Bayer, and the acquisition of Healthspan by Orkla Health, as well as in crafting bespoke minority transaction solutions for rapidly growing innovative businesses such as the Little Moons minority sale to L Catterton, the Freddie’s Flowers minority sale to The Craftory, and the Dikey Vitamin minority sale to Nestlé Health Science.