The nutrition and health and wellness industry saw a 6 percent increase in transaction activity in the first six months of 2016, according to the Nutrition Capital Network’s (NCN) Transaction Database. Globally, health and wellness companies completed 333 transactions during the first half of 2016. In 2015, 627 transactions occurred for the entire year.

NCN noted an increase in international activity, which has continued to grow in traditional nutrition industry channels such as supplements, and natural and organic foods. For instance, Chinese companies acquired North American companies Iovate (MuscleTech and Hydroxycut) and Doctor’s Best, Coca-Cola acquired Latin America’s leading soy-based beverage brand AdeS, and Shanghai-based ClearVue paid US$30 for CHIC Fresh, one of China’s leading high pressure processed juice companies.

Beverages lead the charge in branded food and beverage investments with high-end sodas Q Drinks and Spindrift netting $11 million and $7.2 million equity investments, respectively; kombucha, aloe and cleansing featured in investments in Health-Ade, LA Aloe and Daily Greens; and home cold-press juicing system company Juicero raising $70 million.

Plant-based alternatives continued to attract capital as General Mills’ 301 venturing arm invested $18 million in nut-based milk, cheese and yogurt company Kite Hill, its fifth investment following Beyond Meat and Good Culture among others; Cricket protein company Exo raised $4 million in March 2016 and later received an investment from Japanese company Dentsu.

Strategic acquirers generally made a larger splash in mergers and acquisitions with strategic acquisitions by Hershey, Hormel, Coca-Cola and Clorox. Also Nutraceutical Corp.’s acquired natural personal care veteran Aubrey Organics, and Swedish firm Probi gained marketshare in the growing but increasingly competitive probiotic segment with the acquisition of Nutraceutix.

NCN’s top 10 transaction for the first half of 2016, ranked by size and strategic importance were:

NCN produces annual lists of top transactions in the nutrition and health & wellness industry, in addition to a summary of investment and M&A activity, derived from the NCN Transaction Database maintained since 2004. The NCN Transaction Database tracks transactions in seven industry categories: branded food and beverage (natural/organic/functional), supplements, ingredients, contract manufacturing, over the counter (OTC) and personal care, retail and distribution, and technology (delivery, apps, e-commerce, etc.). The database is available to NCN’s 46 Cornerstone Investor members.

NCN hosts four investor meetings each year: an East Coast spring meeting (New York), a West Coast fall meeting (San Francisco), an annual European meeting (Geneva, Switzerland) and an October meeting (Las Vegas).