Fruitist, the healthy snacking company known for its jumbo blueberries, has raised $150 million in an equity funding round led by new investor J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with billionaire Ray Dalio‘s family office doubling down on its existing investment in the farming startup. The company, valued at over $1 billion, is growing distribution rapidly in a snacking market estimated to be as large as $800 billion and in which consumers are spending more dollars on premium-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 push deeper into retail locations around the world. In the U.S., its berries are already sold at Costco, Giant, Publix, ShopRite, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Wakefern, Walmart, and Whole Foods, among other stores. It is also planning to expand distribution of its recently introduced single-serve, grab-and-go packs of fresh blueberries, Fruitist Snack Cups, citing explosive growth in the European market, and its new, even larger Legend Super Jumbo blueberries.

The company told CNBC earlier this year that annual sales surpassed $400 million, and that sales of its blueberries had tripled over the previous 12 months. It did not provide a new sales figure or new valuation with the latest investor round. Aliment Capital and Steve Kaplan, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, also participated in the new funding.

“We are investing in growth in volume, more production capacity,” said Fruitist CEO and co-founder Steve Magami, citing its agricultural operations in eight countries. “The dollars are going into growing volumes because demand is far greater than we can supply,” he said.

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

“We believe that Fruitist, with control of its value chain, significant organic growth opportunity ahead, and positioning as a driving force of premiumization of berries and the better-for-you category, will realize durable expansion,” said Brad Demong, managing director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, in a statement announcing the deal.

The recently introduced supermarket coolers stocking Fruitist Snack Cups have grown distribution from an initial 30 stores in Spain in April to 750 stores, and Magami said that is headed to 1,000 stores. That is happening in the U.S. as well, where he said most retail partners will be adding the product in at least a small number of their locations.

Fruitist ranked No. 18 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

“We see a snacking industry at $600 million to $800 million, and we see the healthy snacking industry as an eighth of that total, and we know our products rank to the far right of the upper right quadrant,” Magami said. He added that company doesn’t see traditional berry industry players as the competition, describing them as “more of a commodity,” and Fruitist as being in a new snacking category.

“Over time, people will realize regular blueberries are more for the blender and cakes, and these are snacking berries to replace a meal,” he said.

Sally Lyons Wyatt, chief advisor consumer goods & foodservice insights at consulting firm Circana, said the healthy snacking sector — often called the “better for you” segment and which includes fruits, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, and nuts — is posting notable growth in a relatively flat snacking market. “What is keeping the core snacking category going is the ‘better for you’ products,” she said. 

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

She said the trend had taken off before Covid, but then got a boost from an increased focus on health and wellness during the pandemic and the rise of social media influencers as consumer brand advocates, and has since seen a further tailwind from the GLP-1 weight loss drug boom.

Magami said Fruitist’s research shows that GLP-1 users “are eating virtually less of everything except for fruits and vegetables” six month after starting the drugs.

“We think we are at the intersection of wellness culture and snacking on the go, and know that there is a willingness to pay for more reliable fruit,” he said, adding that the goal is “to build the largest healthy snacking business in the world.” 

Fruitist is expanding into cherries, raspberries and blackberries, but Magami described the additional berries as “just getting started, just at the ground floor.”

He said the cherry production, already in China, is expected to be introduced to other markets including North America over the next year. “We want to scale fast,” he said, but added that the new produce lines are a very small, single-digit percentage of the total business now, and “will never on their own be as large for us as blueberries.”

IPO ahead?

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

Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at IPO research and IPO ETF firm Renaissance Capital, says for investors eyeing companies like Fruitist and Once Upon a Farm, growth is as much, if not more of a driving factor, than the healthy snacking theme.

“Companies often go public when growth trends look most optimistic, so the biggest risk for investors is when that growth is unsustainable, either because it was a fad, or because there’s a really devoted initial customer base that doesn’t translate to the broader market,” he said.

In a food space that has seen public offerings that run the gamut from traditional packaged goods and beverages to alternative proteins like Beyond Meat and dairy alternatives like Oatly — and closer comps to Fruitist like egg and butter producer Vital Farms — Kennedy said it can be hard to find a perfect match. But he added that investors generally like to see a portfolio of products, “which is why we’re seeing Fruitist make a push beyond its core blueberry offering, or Once Upon a Farm expand beyond its pouches.” 

Kennedy also said that since the food space has had “a lot of losers” this year, “it’s especially impressive if a company is able to sell a premium product and take market share while the rest of the industry is under pressure.”

Circana has monitored the consumer gravitating to berries for years, “and every year, it’s one of those products that just continues to outpace most traditional packaged snacks,” Lyons Wyatt said.

The growth rate for snack produce has slowed, but she said that is a function of the fact that just a few years ago it was a very small market. Circana’s current estimate of 4% growth for snack produce is far below the 19% growth it posted in the 2019-2020 period, but she said it is the continued growth that matters more, and a business model that is “about as pure and transparent as you get with snack produce.”

“It will continue to gain strength and we see it being a big hit around the world because it delivers on all the aspects of what consumers are looking for,” she said. The biggest limitation to broader consumer adoption, she added, is price.

“These are priced around $6 a clamshell,” said Magami. “We are not selling champagne strawberries for $19. We are focused on building a durable business and growing the brand and have substantial runway ahead,” he said. “We will realize well above average growth, which is rare in this sector.”