New VC Firm To Focus On Natural Products Industry

New VC Firm To Focus On Natural Products Industry

DENVER--Greenmont Capital Partners, a new private equity fund created by natural products industry leaders and Colorado-based investors, announced it has raised $15 million and will commence operations. The new venture capital firm will focus on emerging companies in the natural products industry.

While there have been a number of venture capital funds interested in the broad wellness industry, Greenmont purposely set out to bring widely experienced and successful industry entrepreneurs together to provide not just capital but effective--and patient--counsel to the companies in which it invests, said David Link, managing general partner, in a statement. Links background in private equity investment includes time with Denver-based Quest International Management.

General partners in the new firm include Barney Feinblum, former president of Celestial Seasonings and Horizon Organic Dairy, and president of Organic Vintners; S. M. Hass Hassan, co-founder of Alfalfas Markets Inc., now part of Wild Oats Market Inc.; Bryan Meehan, managing director and co-founder of Fresh & Wild; Paul Repetto, co-founder of Horizon Organic Dairy and former president of Westbrae Natural Foods; and Mark Retzloff, co-founder of Horizon Organic Dairy and Alfalfas Markets, president of Aurora Organic Dairy and member of Wild Oats board of directors. According to Greenmont, other industry veterans are participating in the new venture capital firm and will make their experience available to portfolio companies.

Greenmont said the company will be of particular value to companies with current sales of $2 million or more, a powerful vision for the future and commitment to the industrys core values. Individual company investments ranging from $0.5 to $2.5 million are envisioned for manufacturers, marketers, distributors and retailers in the United States and abroad.