| Happy Family | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Founder: | Shazi Visram |
| Location Country: | U.S. |
| Key People: |
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| Industry: | Food |
| Products: | Baby food |
| Parent: | Danone |
Happy Family is an organic and baby food company in the US.[1] It was ranked No. 2 in Inc. Magazines 2011 list of the 500 Fastest-Growing Companies, in the food industry category.[2]
Happy Family was founded in 2003 by Shazi Visram. Visram developed the idea as a graduate student at Columbia Business School, where she studied the baby-food market and child nutrition, and began building the company while in business school.[3] In 2005, Jessica Rolph joined as COO and founding partner. Rolph, a Cornell Business School graduate, had a prior career at Whole Foods in research.
The company launched its first products on Mother's Day in 2006 – a line of organic, fresh-frozen baby meals sold through a New York grocery store chain.[4]
By 2010, Happy Family grew to more than $13 million in sales and was ranked 68th in Inc. Magazine's list of fastest-growing companies, with three-year growth of over 3,000%.[4] By the end of 2012, the company employed more than 70 people, and its products were available in over 14,000 stores and 30 countries.[5]
The company secured $30 million in debt and equity financing from individual private investors through a number of financing rounds rather than selling equity to private equity or venture capital groups.[6] [7] In May 2013, Groupe Danone acquired a 92% stake in the company with both Visram and Rolph as current owner partners.[8]