Most celebrity business ventures are licensing deals wearing a founder’s costume. The name goes on the label, the cheque clears, and an operating company nobody has heard of does the actual work.
Jennifer Garner’s is not that. On 6 February 2026, she rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange as Once Upon A Farm went public at $18 per share with a valuation of $724 million.
The company she co-founded is now a listed public entity with audited financials, a board seat in her name, and a stock price that has since gone down. That last detail is the most interesting part of the story.
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The company sells organic, cold-pressed refrigerated food for children — pouches, smoothies, applesauce and oat bars — through grocery retail and direct-to-consumer channels.
It was founded by serial entrepreneurs Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz, with Garner and CEO John Foraker joining as co-founders two years later. Foraker’s background matters to the credibility of the operation: he ran Annie’s Homegrown for more than a decade and served as a president at General Mills.
Note: founding-date reporting varies between 2011 and 2015 depending on the source. Verify before publication.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Annual revenue (yr ending Sept 2025) | $225 million |
| Year-on-year growth | Over 40% |
| CAGR since 2018 | More than 60% |
| IPO valuation | $724 million |
| Capital raised | $197.9 million |
| Shares sold by company | ~7.6 million |
| Shares sold by existing holders | ~3.4 million |
| Lead bookrunners | Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase |
A compound annual growth rate above 60% sustained over seven years is not a celebrity endorsement outcome. It is a consumer packaged goods outcome — and CPG is one of the hardest categories in which to build distribution from scratch.
This is where the Once Upon A Farm story diverges most sharply from the celebrity-brand template, because the terms are public.
The S-1 discloses that Garner serves on the public company’s board of directors and continues as co-founder and spokesperson — “Farmer Jen” — a role for which she was paid $1 million in the prior year, with $2 million to $3 million in expected annual compensation through 2028, separate from stock options and an IPO-linked bonus.
She also worked the roadshow directly. Garner described the investor meetings to Forbes as rooms full of existing customers, noting that families already trusted the product.
That is a meaningful distinction for anyone assessing celebrity-backed companies. There is a difference between a founder who licenses a likeness and a founder who sits on the board, pitches institutional investors and has compensation disclosed in a registration statement.
Once Upon A Farm is a public benefit corporation — the “PBC” in its legal name — which means its charter permits management to weigh mission alongside shareholder returns.
Garner has framed the IPO itself as a mission decision. Selling to a major food conglomerate would have cost the existing team control of the business; a listing preserved it while raising capital.
The concrete expression of that mission is WIC certification. Getting products approved so low-income families can purchase them through the federal nutrition programme has been a stated priority, and the brand now holds that distinction in more than 20 states. Garner has called it the company’s north star.
It connects to a longer track record — she had been a trustee for Save the Children for several years before joining the company in 2017.
A public listing forces disclosure that private celebrity ventures never face. Three risks stand out.
Tariff and sourcing exposure. The prospectus highlighted risks related to tariffs and trade barriers, particularly against Mexico and South America, from where the company sources a significant portion of its fruit and vegetable ingredients.
Key-person concentration. A brand built substantially on one founder’s public identity carries a risk no diversified CPG company does.
Acquisition framing. Ahead of the listing, Hedgeye analyst Bennett Cheer characterised the company as an acquisition “play” — a view that treats the IPO as a staging post toward a strategic sale rather than a destination.
The stock’s path is the honest part of this story. Priced at $18, up 17% on day one, close to $25 within a week, then down roughly 15% for the year by August.
Garner’s stated response has been to ignore the daily price and focus on execution — her position being that the stock follows the mission rather than the reverse.
Whether or not one finds that convincing as investor communication, the underlying pattern is common and worth understanding. Consumer IPOs frequently pop on scarcity — the listing was described as a rare food offering that excited investors — and then reprice once the float settles and quarterly results replace the narrative.
For investors, the lesson generalises. A founder’s celebrity generates demand at listing. It does not generate gross margin.
Beyond Once Upon A Farm, Garner’s commercial activity follows a consistent pattern: long-term brand relationships rather than one-off endorsements.
She has been the recurring face of Capital One’s advertising campaigns, continuing through 2026. She brokered Once Upon A Farm’s first sports sponsorship in 2024 — a multi-year deal making it Angel City FC’s exclusive children’s snack partner.
She was named to the Forbes 50 Over 50 class of 2026 at age 54, alongside continued acting work.
Coverage of celebrity businesses stops at the launch. Here is what actually determines outcomes.
Public listing is the real test of a celebrity brand. Private valuations are negotiated; public ones are voted on daily. Expect more celebrity-founded consumer companies to attempt listings after this precedent — and expect most to trade below their debut.
Governance disclosure becomes the differentiator. Once Upon A Farm published its founder compensation structure. Investors evaluating the next celebrity IPO should ask for the same and treat its absence as a signal.
Tariff exposure is the underpriced risk in food CPG. Companies sourcing produce from Mexico and South America face input volatility that margin models built in a stable trade environment do not capture.
The PBC structure will be tested. A public benefit corporation’s mission commitments have not yet been stress-tested against a sustained share price decline. Once Upon A Farm may become the case study.
Acquisition remains the likely endgame. If the Hedgeye thesis holds, a strategic buyer eventually acquires the brand. The question for shareholders is whether that happens above or below the $18 listing price.
Garner is a co-founder and chief brand officer of Once Upon A Farm, an organic children’s food company. She joined in September 2017 alongside CEO John Foraker; the business was originally founded by Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz.
The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OFRM on 6 February 2026, pricing at $18 per share for a valuation of $724 million and raising $197.9 million.
The company reported $225 million in annual revenue for the year ending September 2025, representing growth of more than 40% year-on-year and a compound annual growth rate above 60% since 2018.
Yes, and the terms are disclosed. She was paid $1 million in the year before the IPO, with $2 million to $3 million in expected annual compensation through 2028, separate from stock options and an IPO-linked bonus.
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