Ahem, Deckard. You forgot the obligatory COMMERCIAL DISCLOSURE.
Ancient Nutrition, co-founded by Dr. Josh Axe and Jordan Rubin …
… has received a $103 million minority investment led by California-based VMG Partners, with participation from Chinese investment firm Hillhouse Capital Group and more than 100 members of a co-investor network that includes Jillian Michaels, a personal trainer best-known for her role on NBC's "The Biggest Loser."
The investment will allow the company to add to its product line, grow its footprint and expand its Franklin-based team, Rubin said in an interview this week. Ancient Nutrition currently employs around 140 people, he said, split between its Franklin headquarters, a satellite office in South Florida (which will soon relocate to Franklin) and a handful of manufacturing facilities.
The core of the company's corporate operations are "all in Franklin," Rubin said, "and that's where we're growing."
Founded in 2016, Ancient Nutrition started with Rubin's discovery of a bone- broth protein supplement. Rubin, a veteran of the health-food industry who sold his last company, Garden of Life, to Nestle, soon teamed up with Axe, who has a massive loyal online following for his website, DrAxe.com, and has led his Axe Wellness company to repeated appearances on the Inc. 5000.
Axe and Rubin, longtime friends, brought the teams behind Ancient Nutrition and Axe's line of wellness products together into one company in 2017, and the two have been using their team's complementary skills to grow the merged company ever since.
"There was so much synergy, right from the start," Axe said in an interview. "If I can’t be the best in the world, I want to be with somebody who can be.”
Today, the Ancient Nutrition line includes more than 80 products, Rubin said, with more on the way.
