Nima Fotovat Buys Back MadeGood's Parent From Prelude Growth

Most founders who take outside capital hope for a clean exit. The Fotovat family did something less common in 2026: it took its first outside investor out. On October 6, 2026, Riverside Natural Foods, the Ontario parent of the MadeGood snack brand, announced that the founding family had repurchased the minority stake held by Prelude Growth Partners. The company is again entirely family-owned. The price was not disclosed.

At a glance

The decision: buy the investor out

The announcement describes a partnership of more than four years. Over that time, according to the release, MadeGood’s net sales grew two-and-a-half times, the company built out its leadership team, entered new U.S. retail partnerships, invested in innovation and scaled its manufacturing footprint. It says the brand is now sold in about 40,000 stores globally, including about 35,000 in the United States, among them Costco, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger and Sprouts.

These are the company’s own figures, and the release does not give a revenue base, so “2.5x” cannot be turned into dollars. What it does show is the shape of the bet. The family brought in growth capital, grew the business with it, and then used the result to buy that capital back.

Nima Fotovat’s statement in the release is gracious: Prelude Growth, he said, “has been exactly that and we couldn’t have dreamt of better partners.” Prelude co-founder and managing partner Neda Daneshzadeh called returning the company to full family ownership “a remarkable accomplishment.” Both quotes are from the announcement itself. Prelude, which describes itself as a growth investor in founder- and family-owned consumer businesses, also lists Bachan’s, Banza, Blueland and Summer Fridays in its portfolio.

Where MadeGood came from

Entrepreneur, in a June 2026 profile, traces the brand to Fotovat’s own kitchen. A new parent, he packed fresh fruit and vegetables in his children’s lunches and watched much of it come home uneaten. He wanted something nutrient-dense, organic and safe for classmates with allergies, and found nothing on shelves that met all three tests. He had also grown up around his father’s food-manufacturing business, which had moved from conventional candy toward organic, better-for-you products.

Entrepreneur reports that he and his sisters launched MadeGood in Canada in 2014 and built a small factory to make the product themselves. Costco Connection has likewise profiled the three siblings together. Entrepreneur says the start-up capital was about $5 million: $2.9 million lent by the founders’ parents from their retirement savings and $2 million borrowed from a bank, with the siblings’ homes as collateral. The family has since repaid its parents in full, the outlet reports.

Two hard years

Entrepreneur’s account includes two setbacks that frame the buyback. When schools closed in 2020, it says, revenue fell 70% between the first and second quarters, and recovery took about a year. In December 2024, it reports, the company issued a recall over foreign material contamination, which it described as extremely low risk, and which Fotovat says taught the company that growth had outrun some internal capabilities. These two details come from that single outlet, so treat them as the founder’s account rather than independently confirmed.

Neither event is mentioned in the buyback announcement, which is a growth story told from the end. It is worth holding both in mind: the family took on outside capital, absorbed a recall, and still ended up buying the investor out.

What the announcement does not say

• The price and structure. No outlet we reviewed reports what was paid or how it was financed.
• Revenue. Entrepreneur describes the business as having global revenue in the mid-nine-figures, but we found no second source, so we do not rely on a number.
• Why now. The release frames the exit as the end of a successful partnership. It does not say whether the timing was the family’s or the investor’s.

What founders can take from it

• Outside capital can be a bridge, not a destination. The family picked a first investor with food-operating experience, used it to scale, and then reclaimed the cap table.
• Capacity has to scale with demand. The 2024 recall, in the founder’s own telling, was a lesson in not outgrowing your quality systems.
• Disclose what you can. The deal’s silence on price is normal for private companies; read any figure you see attached to it as unconfirmed.

Related founders

• Daniel Patino and Salad and Go: a founder who bought his brand back.
• Margo Marrone and The Organic Pharmacy: a 2026 founder reclaiming control.
• Founder Exits of 2026: 23 Deals and What Founders Kept: the year’s founder ownership deals in one table.

Sourcing: the deal facts (date, stake, “2.5x,” store counts, quotes) are from the October 6, 2026 company announcement on PR Newswire, opened directly via a syndicated copy and corroborated by Pulse 2.0’s October 12 write-up, which republishes it. Founding story, start-up capital, 2020 revenue drop and 2024 recall are from Entrepreneur (June 24, 2026), attributed inline and single-sourced; Costco Connection corroborates the sibling founders. We conducted no interview. No portrait is used; the image is a typographic card.