(Bloomberg) — Once Upon a Farm PBC, the organic kids snacks maker co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner, jumped 17% in its trading debut Friday after the company and some of its investors raised $197.9 million in an initial public offering.
The stock closed at $21.05 per share in New York, above its IPO price of $18. Shares rose as much as 22% to $22 apiece earlier in the session. The closing price gives the company a market value of $847 million, based on the outstanding shares.
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Berkeley, California-based Once Upon a Farm sold about 7.6 million shares and the selling holders offered around 3.4 million shares, which priced in the middle of the $17 to $19 marketed range. The offering was more than 12 times oversubscribed, people familiar with the matter have said.
The company makes premium-priced products, including kid-friendly pouches of no-sugar-added organic fruit and vegetable puree, as well as bars, frozen meals and smoothie packets.
The firm traces its roots to 2015, when co-founders Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz created recipes that focused on organic food, according to the filing. Garner and former Annie’s Chief Executive Officer John Foraker joined in 2017.
Separate from Garner’s role on the company’s board, she also receives compensation for her role as co-founder and “Farmer Jen,” the filing shows. The actress has already been paid $1 million and stock options as part of a deal agreed in 2022. Garner is set to receive $2 million on Jan. 31, 2026, $2 million on Jan. 31, 2027, and $3 million on Jan. 31, 2028. She is also eligible to receive a cash bonus that is tied to the IPO price.
Garner has played a key role in the company’s meetings with investors and the formal road show. “I work to add value and stay involved in any way that I possibly can across all aspects of the business,” she told Bloomberg in an interview.
“I really work to build meaningful relationships with our retail partners,” the actress added. “They have no problem reaching straight out to me and I love that. I love that they see me as part of the sales team, marketing sees me as part of the marketing team, supply sees me as somebody they can send to a farm and chat with our growers and pickers.”
Shutdown Delay
Once Upon a Farm filed for the IPO in September, ahead of what became the longest-ever US government shutdown. Foraker decided to postpone the kids food maker’s listing until 2026, according to a LinkedIn post in November, citing the shutdown as having “got in the way.”
The company had a net loss of $39.8 million on revenue of $176.7 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a net loss of $11.6 million on revenue of $107.6 million in the corresponding period in 2024, its filing shows. Gross margin for the first nine months of 2025 was 40%, down from 42% in the year ago period.
Its pouches have accounted for the majority of net sales, the filing shows. Coolers stocked with the company’s products are in over 2,800 brick-and-mortar stores including Walmart Inc., Target Corp., Amazon.com Inc.’s Whole Foods and Kroger Co.
Proceeds from the IPO are earmarked for purposes including helping repay debt, purchasing new equipment, and cash payment in connection with a spokesperson agreement.
Once Upon a Farm raised $52 million in a funding round in 2022 led by CAVU Venture Partners, along with existing investors Cambridge, Beechwood and S2G Ventures, as S2G Investments was known at the time. The company reached $100 million in retail sales that year, the website shows.
Debuts for consumer-facing companies have been modest in recent years. Listings in the sector on US exchanges raised $17.4 billion in 2021, but volume in aggregate since then has only added up to about $15.6 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Shares of Cava Group Inc. and Amer Sports Inc. have delivered big gains since their IPOs while Webtoon Entertainment Inc. and Chagee Holdings Ltd. have stumbled.
CAVU Venture Partners was expected to have the largest stake in the company after the IPO with 27.5%, followed by S2G Investments with 14% and Cambridge Companies SPG with 9.3%, according to a Jan. 26 filing.
The IPO was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and William Blair & Co. The shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OFRM.
–With assistance from Deena Shanker.
(Updates trading after session close and market value.)
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