Headline & intro
Once Upon a Farm’s renewed IPO attempt is more than another consumer listing; it is a referendum on three big questions at once: Are public markets ready to trust celebrity-backed brands again, do investors still believe in premium organic food for kids, and is the IPO window finally reopening after two brutal years?
This is where storytelling collides with margins. Jennifer Garner’s name, a strong mission around child nutrition and nearly a decade of brand building all meet the cold discipline of quarterly earnings. In this piece, we’ll unpack what this listing really signals—for investors, founders and parents.
The news in brief
According to TechCrunch, citing an SEC filing and Reuters, organic food company Once Upon a Farm has restarted its plans to go public in the U.S. public markets. The company, known for its refrigerated organic baby food and children’s snacks, filed an updated S-1 registration statement that includes a proposed price range of $17 to $19 per share.
At the midpoint of that range, Once Upon a Farm aims to raise at least about $209 million, implying a valuation of roughly $764 million. The company was founded in 2015 and counts actress Jennifer Garner as a co‑founder, alongside entrepreneurs Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz. Garner joined after the original founding but has since become the public face of the brand.
The IPO is currently expected to price and debut around 6 February, according to IPOScoop. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are leading the offering. PitchBook data cited by TechCrunch indicates the startup has raised close to $100 million in private funding from investors including S2G Ventures and CAVU Consumer Partners.
Why this matters
Once Upon a Farm sits at the intersection of three crowded storylines: celebrity-backed consumer brands, the premium organic food wave and the long-frozen IPO pipeline. How it trades after listing will send a signal to all three.
For celebrity brands, this is one of the first big post-pandemic tests outside of beauty and fashion. Garner’s involvement undoubtedly helped distribution and brand awareness, but public markets are notoriously indifferent to red-carpet aura. If the stock performs, it will show that celebrity equity can be an asset rather than a governance risk—provided the underlying unit economics are healthy. If it struggles, it reinforces the view that the “star power + DTC + premium pricing” playbook has run its course.
For the food sector, the deal will show how much investors still value “better-for-you” positioning after a series of disappointing debuts by mission-driven consumer brands. Names like Beyond Meat, Oatly, Allbirds or The Honest Company have learned the hard way that strong narratives around sustainability or wellness do not protect you from margin pressure, retail pushback or fickle shoppers when inflation bites.
Finally, the timing matters. A successful listing could embolden the backlog of mid-sized consumer companies waiting for the IPO window to reopen. A weak reception would confirm that public investors still prefer large, profitable stories—and that late-stage consumer startups may need to live with private-capital discipline for longer.
The bigger picture
This IPO attempt fits a broader recalibration in consumer tech and CPG. From 2015 to roughly 2021, the dominant playbook was:
- Build a mission-driven DTC brand
- Layer in a celebrity or influencer
- Raise large growth rounds on revenue multiples
- Exit via IPO before profitability
That era ended abruptly. Rising interest rates and disappointing post-IPO performances forced investors to rediscover words like “cash flow” and “gross margin”. Many consumer names now trade well below their offering prices, making institutions more cautious about new listings in the category.
Once Upon a Farm is coming to market in this new environment. To win over investors, it has to show not only growth but also:
- A credible path to sustainable profitability
- Defensible pricing power in a cost-sensitive category
- Evidence that its refrigerated, organic proposition scales beyond affluent urban parents
Compared with some earlier “hype IPOs”, this deal is more modest in size and valuation. A sub‑$1 billion market cap suggests bankers and management have learned from past excesses and are prioritising a workable aftermarket over a vanity valuation.
It also highlights how traditional finance is re‑embracing food and consumer staples as a counterweight to volatile tech listings. We are likely to see more “boring but understandable” IPOs: snacks, beverages, health products and niche retailers with clear P&Ls, rather than pre‑profit apps chasing elusive network effects.
The European / regional angle
For European readers, Once Upon a Farm’s IPO is a reminder that the real action in children’s organic food has quietly shifted to the refrigerated and fresh segment. Europe has long been a powerhouse in baby nutrition—with brands like HiPP, Holle, Organix or Ella’s Kitchen—but much of that market is shelf‑stable jars and pouches, governed by strict EU safety rules.
Once Upon a Farm’s model—fresh, cold‑chain products with strong branding—could easily appeal to urban European parents, particularly in markets like Germany, the Nordics, the UK or the Benelux countries where organic penetration is high and grocery logistics are mature. Whether the company expands here will depend on how well it can finance growth post‑IPO and whether it wants to tackle Europe’s complex regulatory and retail landscape.
At the same time, EU policymakers are pushing for healthier, more transparent food systems through initiatives tied to the Green Deal, farm‑to‑fork strategies and stricter marketing rules around children’s products. Any U.S. brand entering Europe will have to navigate not only labelling and ingredient rules but also a cultural context where trust, sustainability and privacy (in marketing and data) matter more than celebrity endorsements.
For European founders, the listing is a useful datapoint: public markets may once again reward consumer companies that can combine strong values with disciplined execution—something many regional food and baby-care brands already do well.
Looking ahead
The next 6–12 months will show whether Once Upon a Farm becomes a case study in disciplined growth—or another cautionary tale of a good brand meeting unforgiving markets.
Key things to watch:
- IPO pricing vs. trading: Does the stock hold or rise above the $17–$19 range, or does it immediately trade down? That will tell us a lot about institutional demand.
- Profitability narrative: Even if the company is not yet profitable, investors will look for convincing milestones: improving gross margins, stable customer acquisition costs and rational marketing spend.
- Retail vs. DTC mix: Reliance on supermarkets and big-box retailers gives access to scale but compresses margins. How Once Upon a Farm manages this trade‑off will be critical.
- International ambitions: Management may signal whether Europe or other regions are on the roadmap. Partnerships with established distributors could be a faster path than going it alone.
There are risks. A consumer downturn could hit premium baby food first; parents trade down faster than they give up diapers. Regulatory scrutiny of children’s food—heavy metals, sugar content, marketing claims—could also tighten on both sides of the Atlantic. On the opportunity side, if the company proves that refrigerated kids’ food can be a mass category, it opens up adjacent lines: school snacks, family meals, maybe even healthcare‑linked nutrition.
The bottom line
Once Upon a Farm’s IPO is less about Jennifer Garner and more about whether public markets are ready to back a new generation of mission‑driven, premium food brands—this time with real discipline. If the listing goes well, expect a queue of similar companies to follow. If it stumbles, celebrity‑fronted consumer startups may find the exit doors narrowing again. The question for investors and parents alike: is the promise of better food for kids now a durable business, or still mostly a story we want to believe?
