Oddbox, a London-based independent ‘wonky’ fruit and veg box scheme, has reached its crowdfunding target in record time to enable it to expand its service.
The company initially hoped to raise GBP350,000 but managed GBP520,000.
The purpose-driven business has captured people’s imagination by offering a quality, sustainably-sourced product which is conveniently delivered to your door. Oddbox’s weekly boxes are filled with delicious wonky and surplus fruit and veg that have been rescued from farms and would otherwise have been wasted. It pays farmers a fair price for their produce and donates up to 10 per cent to tackle food poverty by partnering with charities like City Harvest.
Oddbox launched in 2016 and delivers to over 1,600 homes in South London and 85 offices in central London but has a waiting list of over 3,000 people keen to subscribe. The GBP500,000 investment will be used to upgrade its tech platform, build a strong brand, optimise operations and expand the expertise in its team. This will help the business broaden its delivery area to reach their goal of 12,500 customers by 2019, but the work has already begun with 15 new postcodes in West and East London rolling out from August
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, Oddbox co-founder, says: “We are incredibly humbled to have exceeded our investment target in such a short space of time. The support we have had from customers and investors has been phenomenal and we can’t thank them enough. We believe wholeheartedly in our wonky fruit and veg scheme and we’re looking forward to bringing it to more people.
“We won’t stop there though, our mission is to fundamentally shift food standards and eventually, normalise wonky produce and we need everyone to get involved. Come and join the wonky veg revolution with us!”
Oddbox was inspired by eating a misshapen but delicious tomato in Portugal and the founders wondered why they couldn’t get similar produce in the UK. When they returned from holiday, they convinced two British farmers to sell them their imperfect and surplus produce which they paid a fair price for. They boxed it up, charged 30 per cent less than other veg box schemes and delivered them to 10 customers in South London from the back of their car.
ClearlySo, Europe’s leading impact investment bank, supported the fundraise by helping with pitch preparation, managing the due diligence process and making introductions to family office and high-net-worth individual investors.
Hayley Collen, investment director at ClearlySo, says: “It was a pleasure working with the Oddbox team to help them raise funding to expand their operations and tackle the vast food waste challenge.”
