Ray Dalio, JPMorgan top billion-dollar berry farmer Fruitist’s new deal

Fruitist, the healthy snack company known for its jumbo blueberries, raises $150 million in equity financing round led by new investor JP Morgan Asset Management is doubling down on billionaire Ray Dalio’s family office’s existing investment in the farming venture. The company, valued at more than $1 billion, is rapidly growing distribution in a snack market estimated to be between $600 billion and $800 billion in size, where consumers are spending more dollars on higher-priced, healthier options.

Fruitist has now raised a total of $443 million in equity capital from investors and says the new capital will help it further expand into retail locations around the world. Its fruit is currently sold in the U.S. at Costco, Giant, Publix, ShopRite, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Wakefern, Walmart and Whole Foods, among other stores. It also plans to expand distribution of its recently introduced single-serve, grab-and-go fresh blueberry packs, Fruitist Snack Cups, citing rapid growth in the European market, and new, even larger Legend Super Jumbo blueberries.

The company told CNBC earlier this year that its annual sales exceeded $400 million and that its blueberry sales had tripled. No new sales figures or new valuation were provided in the last investor round. Aliment Capital and Oaktree Capital Management co-founder Steve Kaplan also participated in the new financing.

“We are investing in volume expansion and more production capacity,” Fruitist CEO and co-founder Steve Magami said, referring to its agricultural operations in eight countries. “Dollar volumes are increasing because demand is much greater than we can supply,” he said.

The majority of the new investor money will fund new cultivation and investments in cold storage and infrastructure, including automation to increase control over quality and distribution.

“With Fruitist’s control of the value chain, a leading significant organic growth opportunity, and positioning itself as a driver of the premiumization of fruits and the better-for-you category, we believe it will deliver sustained growth,” JP Morgan Asset Management Managing Director Brad Demong said in a statement announcing the deal.

Distribution of the recently introduced Fruitist Snack Cups has expanded from the initial 30 stores in Spain to 750 stores in April, and Magami said it will expand to 1,000 stores and the US as well; Here, most retail partners will add the product to at least a small number of locations.

Fruitist ranked #18 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

“We see the snack industry as being between $600 and $800 million, and we see the healthy snack industry as one-eighth of that total, and we know our products are in the far right of the upper right quadrant,” Magami said. He added that the company does not view traditional juice industry players like Driscoll’s as competitors, describing them as “more of a commodity.”

“Over time, people will realize that regular blueberries are being used more for blenders and muffins, and that they are fruits consumed as snacks rather than meals,” he said.

Sally Lyons Wyatt, Principal Consultant for Consumer Goods & Foodservice Insights at consulting firm Circana, said the healthy snack industry, often referred to as the “better for you” segment, has seen significant growth in a relatively flat snack market. “It’s ‘better-for-you’ products that keep the staple snack category afloat,” he said.

“Berries are full of antioxidants and are one of the healthiest fruits in this snacking story,” Lyons Wyatt said.

While Magami declined to comment on the initial public offering timeline, he said the firm is closely following the planned IPO of Jennifer Garner’s Once Upon a Farm, which recently filed to go public.

Growth is as much a driving factor for investors as the healthy snacking theme of companies like Fruitist and Once Upon a Farm, says Matthew Kennedy of IPO research firm Renaissance Capital. Kennedy said there had been “a lot of losers” in the food space this year, but added: “It’s particularly impressive that a company can sell a premium product and take market share when the rest of the industry is under pressure.”

“Companies typically go public when their growth trends look most optimistic, so the biggest risk for investors is that that growth is unsustainable, is either a fad, or has a really loyal initial customer base that doesn’t translate to the broader market,” he said.

Circana says it’s been watching consumers turn to fruit for years, “and year after year, this is one of the products that continues to outperform most traditional packaged snacks,” Lyons Wyatt said. “It will continue to gain strength and we see it being a big hit globally because it offers everything consumers are looking for,” he said, but added that the biggest limitation to wider consumer adoption is price.

“These are priced around $6 per cap,” Magami said. “We’re not selling champagne strawberries for $19. We’re focused on building a resilient business, growing the brand, and we have a significant runway ahead of us,” he said. “We will achieve growth well above the average, which is rare in this sector.”