Thomas First – Startup Investor Profile

Operating Partner Thomas First at Castanea Partners focuses on partnering with innovative consumer brands in the food and beverage industry. His previous investments include Nantucket Nectars, O Water, Health-Ade Kombucha, and Sweet Leaf Tea. Current collaborations involve brands like Yasso, Brew Dr. Kombucha, Essentia Water, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and The Bruery. Thomas First has experience in founding and developing companies, bringing valuable insights to founders in building their brands and teams. He typically invests check sizes ranging from $15 to $150 million in both minority and majority transactions. Thomas operates mainly in North America and Europe, exhibiting a strong track record in the industry. His partnership style involves working closely with partner companies, sharing industry expertise, and contributing to the growth and success of the brands.

Location: Concord, MA

Country: United States of America

Investment Regions: EU, NA

Investment Stages: pre-seed, seed

Website:

AI Reasoning: Search results show Tom (Thomas) First active in beverage investments and company activity in 2024-2025. Notably, Generous Brands’ acquisition of Health-Ade Kombucha completed/announced July-August 2025; Thomas First is associated historically with Health-Ade through First Beverage/industry activity and continues operating with beverage brands (e.g., Culture Pop, Yasso, Brew Dr., Jeni’s). Given an identified investment-related transaction in July/August 2025 (less than 6 months before the evaluation date), the appropriate classification is ‘very-active’. The startup/brand explicitly mentioned that was invested/related is Health-Ade Kombucha.

Low Activity – Only known angel investments more than 12 months ago.

Active – Known angel investments between the last 12 and 6 months.

Very Active – Known angel investments in the last 6 months.