Following its angel funding round earlier this year Gousto, the recipe box delivery business that appeared on Dragon's Den, has now closed a USD2m investment led by venture capital fund MMC Ventures.
Existing investors, including the Angel CoFund, also participated.
The funding will be used to further strengthen the product and to fast-track the business.
The online food market is worth GBP7bn today and is forecast to grow to GBP18bn by 2018. Founded by Timo Schmidt and James Carter last year, Gousto delivers organic, local produce, in perfect portion sizes, with easy-to-follow step-by-step recipes – eliminating food waste and making the cooking process easy for busy people, while also encouraging healthy, delicious, home-cooked dining. Gousto delivers straight to the door across all of the UK, making meal planning simple. Latest figures show month-on-month growth of 138 per cent – with over 26,000 meals already being delivered per month.
Schmidt says: “Our value proposition is unmatched: organic vegetables, the highest quality British meat, and everything else you need to make delicious meals for only around GBP5 per portion – plus no food waste and new recipes to choose from every week! People love recipes and cooking, we simply make their lives easier and better. We had 3 funding offers and went with MMC because we think they really understand our concept best and are supporting us with their entire network – we’re really excited to be working with them.”
Jon Coker, investment partner, MMC Ventures, says: “We are excited to announce our investment in Gousto and look forward to working with Timo and James. We believe there is a significant opportunity for disruption in online grocery but it is a tough market to execute in. That is why we have backed Gousto – Timo and James are outstanding, they have achieved a market leading position in a short period of time on a limited budget and we believe our investment will allow them to really accelerate the growth”
George Whitehead, chairman, Angel CoFund, says: “We have been very impressed with the performance of the team since our first investment in Gousto and this is vindicated with a significant Series A round supported by a great partner like MMC. This business is on a fast-track ascent and I’m delighted that the Angel CoFund continues to be able to play its part in building this excellent, British company.”
