Gousto secures MMC backing

Recipe box delivery business Gousto has closed a $2 million investment led by MMC Ventures and backed by existing investors including the Angel CoFund. The funding will be used to further strengthen the product and to fast track the business.

PRESS RELEASE

Following their angel funding round earlier this year, Gousto – the exciting new recipe box delivery business that appeared on Dragon’s Den – has now closed a $2m investment led by leading venture capital fund MMC Ventures, and backed again by existing investors, including the Angel CoFund. The funding will be used to further strengthen the product, and to fast track the business.

The online food market is worth £7bn today and is forecast to grow to £18bn 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 super 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% – with over 26,000 meals already being delivered per month.

The additional funding will directly benefit Gousto’s customers – with the funds being used to build up Gousto’s team of chefs and nutritionists; improve the recipes; and strengthen relationships with the farm suppliers and producers. In September, Gousto raised over $500k from industry veterans and the Angel CoFund – taking their investment this year to over $2.5m.

Timo Schmidt, Gousto Co-Founder, said, “Our value proposition is unmatched: organic vegetables, the highest quality British meat, and everything else you need to make delicious meals for only around £5 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.”

James Carter, Gousto Co-Founder, said, “We don’t want to sell a product, we want to WOW Gousto members every single week and delight them. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 customers, you need to have great infrastructure in place – from sourcing, logistics, product development, tech, to fulfillment. Building this infrastructure now puts us in the pole position to grab a sizeable share of the £18bn online food market.”

Jon Coker, Investment Partner, MMC Ventures, said, “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, said, “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.”

** If you’d like to try Gousto out, please use the discount code ‘GROWTH’ for £15 off at www.gousto.co.uk. Feel free to share this code with your readers and colleagues! **

ENDS

About Gousto
In 2011, Timo and James started thinking about a way to overcome the everyday issue of how to cook nice meals without all the hassle and food waste. Having tried out online supermarkets and ready meals, they felt like there has to be a better solution, which led them to start selling recipes and ingredients in exact portions at a market stall at the beginning of 2012. From there it took off – and Gousto was launched.