Everwell Health acquires Nutrition21 in first move as health and wellness platform

11 Nov 2021 --- Active nutrition ingredients company Nutrition21 has been acquired by Everwell Health Holdings, a new consumer health and wellness functional ingredients platform established by private equity firm RoundTable Healthcare Partners.

“Our ‘platform’ and key differentiation is focused around being ‘science-first,’ which is why Nutrition21 was so appealing to start things off as our first platform company,” Everwell CEO Steve Rosenman tells NutritionInsight. 

“Nutrition21’s long history of conducting clinical studies and developing innovative intellectual property (IP) for the active nutrition market was a perfect fit. Additionally, it’s something that we seek to replicate in other consumer health care segments,” Rosenman adds.

Nutrition21 marks Everwell’s first investment, and financial details have not been disclosed. Everwell Health represents the fifth equity investment from RoundTable’s US$700 million Equity Fund V and seventh platform investment in the consumer health care market in the last nine years.

Evaluating business options
Nutrition21 will continue to operate as usual, and Everwell will provide additional resources to continue Nutrition21’s leadership in active nutrition. This includes expanding studies, generating IP, positioning ingredients and providing front and back-end support. 

Steve Rosenman is joining Everwell as its new CEO.“Some partnerships may plug directly into our holdings, while others may remain entirely stand-alone, but synergistic,” notes Rosenman.

“This [platform launch and Nutrition21 acquisition] has been an effort years in the making, evaluating many options. The consumer health market is evolving rapidly and at high-value, so effective ingredients are critical to help emerging brands accelerate and to help large, mature brands stay relevant,” he continues.

The use of nutraceutical and functional ingredients in F&B launches, including supplements, has increased globally, featuring a 3% year-over-year growth when comparing 2020 and 2019 launches. 

Spotlight on science
Besides actively pursuing partnerships and development opportunities with other functional ingredient companies, Everwell will focus on amplifying investments in clinical studies.

“The Everwell platform means a foundation built on scientifically substantiated ingredients. We will apply science to everything we do, even though it may be in new directions,” Rosenman highlights. 

A slew of clinical findings back Nutrition21’s active nutrition ingredients. US-based Texas A&M University found that Nutrition21’s arginine silicate-inositol blend nooLVL increases cognitive performance, while its amylopectin-chromium complex Velositol can aid resistance training when mixed with 15 g of protein. Moreover, nitrosigine may also improve cognitive performance following intense exercise.

Across the nutrition industry, experts echo how indispensable scientific backing is for ingredient success, affecting everything from collagen development to health claims formulation and consumer trust in herbal supplements.

Nutrition21’s ingredients Velositol and NooLVL are featured in various active nutrition products.Shifts in the functional ingredients scene
As the functional food category continues to expand, it will also reshape. Rosenman predicts. Consumer categories will cross more in the future, creating new claims and formulation requirements. Moreover, delivery systems will continue to evolve.

He also anticipates supply chains will move “closer to home,” as discussed at CPhI this week and spotlighted in Innova Market Insights’ seventh top F&B trend for 2022, “Back to the Roots.” 

According to the market researcher, “freshness” has become more important to 43% of global consumers over the past year, up from 34% in 2020. “Flavor” is also up 7 percentage points, just ahead of “nutritional benefit,” up 2 percentage points.

Rosenman’s concluding advice? “Know the consumer and what their needs are. Be able to help brands serve that customer with ingredients that add value. Win-win all around.”

By Anni Schleicher