Medici Brands, the parent company behind David protein bars and low-calorie, low-sugar candy brand HallPass, raised $250 million at a $2.25 billion valuation in early September. It was the biggest food industry deal so far this year. The transaction catapults its founder and CEO Peter Rahal, 40, who invested $20 million in the round (representing 8% of the fundraise), into the billionaire ranks. Medici’s biggest individual investor, with an estimated 70%, Rahal is now worth an estimated $1.9 billion.

Rahal, who sold his first company RxBar to Kellogg for $600 million in 2017, declined to comment other than to joke that he was broke. But he has said in the past that he’s invested at least $50 million in about 100 different businesses, including ready-to-eat oats brand Mush and Olipop, which is now valued at $2 billion. He previously had a stake in the better-for-you popcorn company LesserEvil, which was acquired by The Hershey Company for $750 million last year.

“He doesn’t have to go out for capital,” says one investor who didn’t want to be identified talking about Rahal. “It comes to him.”

Medici recently announced that it’s on track to surpass $300 million in revenue by the end of 2026, claiming that it will be “the fastest food company to reach that milestone.” Much of those sales come from its David protein bars, which were launched in stores in September 2024, a month after the company raised $10 million from Rahal and high-profile physicians and health podcasters Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman.

Initially cofounded by Rahal and Zach Ranen—who’d previously started an online bakery called RAIZE that made no-sugar-added, low-carb, gluten-free desserts—David bars sold briskly, hitting an estimated $100 million revenue in its first year. (Ranen left at the start of 2026 and is apparently working on a new business, though he has not yet revealed any details.) The bars, which boast offering high protein for few calories, are now sold in around 35,000 stores, including Walmart, Target and Costco. HallPass, Medici’s healthier candy brand, launched at Walmart in August.

Medici’s third brand, Epogee, is a bigger departure: it produces an alternative fat ingredient made from canola and palm oils called EPG (esterified propoxylated glycerol) that needed human clinical trials and approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as “Generally Recognized As Safe.” Medici acquired the food tech startup last year for an undisclosed sum, and now uses the ingredient in both David and Hall Pass.

Prior to David bars, Rahal and his childhood friend Jared Smith started making what became RxBar in Rahal’s parents kitchen in 2013. The pair bootstrapped the company with a $10,000 personal investment and got started selling to folks at CrossFit gyms. Just four years later, they cashed out to Kellogg for $600 million. Forbes estimates that Rahal pocketed some $230 million post-tax from the sale.

After departing from the brand in 2018 and moving to Miami, Rahal started to think about his next chapter. “Leaving RxBar was hard because it was my whole life,” he admits. “When I left the company, I lost my organization.” Due to a five year non-compete clause with Kellogg’s, his hands were somewhat tied, so he set up his family office named Litani. (Its website explains that Litani means a “humble lion: An individual who possesses the combined paradoxical characteristics of emotional and intellectual humility with confidence and grit.”)

As soon as the non-compete expired, Rahal got to work creating a new bar with Ranen, tinkering with it for at least a year. “He sees opportunities that other people don't,” says another investor about Ranen. “Once he’s convicted, he really goes for it.”

While the protein bar industry is very hit or miss, he seems to have struck gold twice. But consumers are fickle, as are investors. Right now, Medici’s latest fundraise values the company at an estimated 7.5 times revenue. That’s more than double what RxBar or Kind sold for back in 2017 and 2020, respectively. Whether David or Medici will ever sell for such a lofty multiple remains to be seen. But Rahal—who named his protein bar after Michelangelo’s 16th century masterpiece, and his company after the patrons that made it possible—has always aimed high. “When you see a brand,” he once said, “you want it to stand for something and inspire you like good art.”

Simone Melvin contributed to this report.