Once Upon a Farm IPO: Shares of Jennifer Garner-cofounded company start trading

Freedom clients can now participate in early trading in shares of Once Upon a Farm, an organic baby food producer. The company’s cofounder is actress Jennifer Garner, who also serves on its board. Later on Friday, February 6, the stock is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OFRM. 

Once Upon a Farm raised about $198 million in its IPO, selling roughly 11 million shares at $18 per share, in the middle of the $17-19 marketed range, Reuters reported. The stock opened at $21 per share on Friday, meaning a market valuation of nearly $845 million, Reuters added.

The offering was led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, BofA Securities, William Blair, Barclays, Evercore ISI, and Deutsche Bank Securities, among others.

CAVU Venture Partners, S2G Investments, and Cambridge Companies SPG are among the company’s largest shareholders, Reuters noted. Once Upon a Farm raised $52 million in a 2022 funding round.

In addition to her board role, Garner receives compensation as a cofounder and spokesperson, according to SEC filings from January cited by Bloomberg. Under a 2022 agreement, she has already received $1 million and stock options. She is also scheduled to have received $2 million on January 31, followed by $2 million on January 31, 2027, and $3 million on January 31, 2028, and may qualify for an additional cash bonus tied to the IPO price, Bloomberg reported.

Once Upon a Farm had planned to go public in 2025, but the timeline was disrupted by what became the longest U.S. government shutdown on record, which halted SEC operations, Reuters reported.

Once Upon a Farm, based in Berkeley, California, was founded in 2015 by Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz. Garner and John Foraker, the former CEO of Annie’s and the company’s current CEO, joined in 2017. The company sells premium-priced products for children of all ages, including refrigerated, organic, no-sugar-added fruit and vegetable puree pouches, as well as bars, frozen meals, and smoothie packets, according to the company website. The business is built around two ideas: children should have access to organic, fresh food; and parents need convenient, tasty options.

Once Upon a Farm products are sold in more than 22,000 stores across the U.S. A key pillar of its retail strategy is its branded cooler program, Food Business News writes. The company said coolers stocked with its products are in more than 2,800 stores at retailers including Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, and Kroger, Bloomberg noted.

“Coolers play a highly disruptive role in our brand journey, serving as a key entry point into the brand for new consumer households,” the company said in its SEC filings. “We are rapidly scaling our cooler program to extend our brand presence and increase our product assortment and SKU count across retailers.”

For the nine months ended September 30, Once Upon a Farm reported a net loss of $39.7 million on revenue of $176.6 million. In the year-earlier period, the net loss was $11.5 million on revenue of $107.6 million. The gross margin declined to 40% versus 42% a year earlier.

The company said it plans to use the IPO proceeds for debt repayment, equipment purchases, and cash payments tied to the spokesperson agreement, Bloomberg reported.

Market participants expect more consumer goods and retail companies to return to the IPO market in 2026 after activity slowed last year amid uncertainty around Trump tariffs. “Tariffs will be a sticking point for consumer IPOs, but at least investors now have more confidence in the impact, compared to last year,” Matt Kennedy, a senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, told Reuters.

In prospectuses submitted to the SEC in September and January, Once Upon a Farm warned that trade restrictions affecting Mexico and South America, where it sources a meaningful share of its fruit and vegetable ingredients, could lead to product shortages and higher costs.

Donovan Jones of IPO Edge notes that the company offers strong top-line growth and an improving gross margin, but the operating loss is widening, free cash flow is negative, and sales are seasonal. Though the market opportunity for providing highly nutritious and tasty baby and kids food products in the U.S. is large and expected to grow at a moderate rate through 2030, Jones adds, it features strong competition from existing players and high slotting fees and other costs.

Freedom Finance analyst Alem Bektemirov estimates the stock has 9% upside versus the $18 per share IPO price. He said the key risks include competition and availability of inputs for production.

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Freedom clients will be able to trade Once Upon a Farm shares before the start of the main U.S. session. Premarket trading will open 2-3 hours early, at 15:30-16:30 Astana time. Investors can participate by selecting the symbol OFRM on the Freedom platform.