Selva Perspective: PepsiCo M&A
Selva Perspective is a series we do quarterly, sharing a section directly from our latest LP Letter. Madeline and I each offer our take on a recent piece of news in the Health & Wellness industry. If there’s a topic you think we should do next quarter please let me know in the comments!
Pepsi has had a busy few months! On October 1, 2024 they announced the acquisition of Siete Foods, a line of nutrient-dense Mexican food products, for $1.2 Billion. Then, on March 17, 2025, they announced the acquisition of Poppi, a fast-growing line of prebiotic soda, for $1.95B. These were two of the most anticipated exits of the 2020s following Stripes and AF Ventures backing Siete in 2019 and CAVU backing Poppi (then Mother Beverage) on Shark Tank in 2018. It’s great to see some notable liquidity flowing in the consumer products ecosystem.
Madeline Kaplan: PepsiCo’s recent back-to-back acquisitions of Siete and Poppi are exciting proof points that big CPG conglomerates depend on emerging ‘better-for-you’ brands to stay relevant and up-to-date with the evolving consumer landscape. Consumers are demanding healthier products that taste great and that they can feel good about consuming. Big companies like PepsiCo are recognizing this and are willing to make large investments to own the top assets.
Both Siete and Poppi have great tasting products that people love and brands that feel fresh and bring something new to their respective categories. These transactions are a win-win – they provide a massive outcomes for Siete and Poppi founders and investors and with PepsiCo’s powerful distribution network, there is still tremendous room to grow. Notably, Siete raised $90M and Poppi $40M prior to acquisition, showing that F&B companies can be capital intensive early on, but the pay off for companies that scale to hundreds of millions in revenue and build a meaningful brand is significant.
Kiva Dickinson: If you have talked to me about the exit landscape in CPG, you probably remember a refrain about the need not to rely on the infrequent billion-dollar outcome, so what does it mean that PepsiCo made not one but two billion-dollar acquisitions in just six months?
Firstly, these are both must-own assets. Siete’s chips business was not only eating away share in grocery and mass from PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay (which owns Tostitos and Doritos), but it provided a massive distribution opportunity for Pepsi to unlock with its Direct Store Delivery (DSD) distribution network. Poppi (along with fellow healthy soda competitor, Olipop) was growing rapidly and taking share from Pepsi’s core soda division, while still being underpenetrated in the long tail of convenience that Pepsi distribution controls.
Secondly, this is another case study of innovation not coming from within. Just a few months ago, industry was rocked by news that Coca-Cola and Pepsi were launching their own prebiotic soda brands using their existing IP portfolios (Simply and Soulboost). There was widespread concern that incumbents were opting to build rather than buy. Yet, just a few months later, we see that PepsiCo’s intent had always been to enter this space via M&A.
Finally, we have to give a shoutout to our friends at CAVU who were the largest investors in Poppi dating back to Rohan Oza’s Shark Tank investment in 2018. They led a creative overhaul and re-formulation that positioned this brand to attack soda head-on. This incubation-like effort is our inspiration for some new ventures we have going at Selva Ventures.