Netherlands-based 1-2-Taste, an online B2B food ingredient platform, announced that it has closed its Seed investment round. The funding amount remains undisclosed.
Rotterdam-based Icos Capital led the round with support from existing investor Navus Ventures, a VC firm aimed at high-tech startups and scale-ups that drive the sustainable transitions in food and energy.
Jaap Zijlstra, Senior Investment Manager at Navus Ventures, says, “Since our first discussions with the founders in 2021 and initial investment in 2022, the 1-2-Taste team has shown strong execution, steadily expanding sales volumes while building highly scalable technology and operations.”
“They are digitising and simplifying otherwise complex, expensive and archaic supply chains, enabling SME food innovators to access ingredients and allowing ingredient suppliers to cost-effectively serve broader and more niche markets.”
“The market is recognising the value of 1-2-Taste and therefore we are continuing our support with this second investment,” adds Zijlstra.
What does 1-2-Taste offer?
Founded in 2018 by Jasper Schouten, Arjan Koudijs and Jan Klawer, 1-2-Taste streamlines the sourcing journey for food and beverage companies, offering simplicity in finding, selecting, and ordering required ingredients.
The company provides a diverse range of ingredients, including flavours, colours, fruit and vegetable-based ingredients, sweeteners, texturisers, fibres, nutraceuticals, proteins, emulsifiers, starches, taste enhancers, and more, for various applications within the F&B sector.
Food producers seeking specific functional and taste ingredients for the bakery, ice cream, confectionery, beverage, dairy, or meat processing industry can find and order these online through 1-2-Taste’s platform.
1-2-Taste exclusively serves business customers, offering ingredients in suitable pack sizes for every stage of the food development cycle.
Funds to scale operations
1-2-Taste will use the funds to expand its operations, enhance its technological backbone, and diversify its ingredient portfolio.
According to the Dutch company, “This development is geared towards meeting the evolving needs of our diverse and expanding customer base, reinforcing our commitment to streamlining the ingredient sourcing process for the food and beverage sector.”
Jasper Schouten, CEO of 1-2-Taste, says, “We are overjoyed to welcome Icos Capital as our new investor and to continue our journey with Navus Ventures. Their belief in our mission fuels our ambition and enables us to accelerate our growth trajectory.”
“With the renewed support, we are set to further our innovation, enhancing our marketplace platform and broadening our ingredient offering.”
“1-2-Taste is making the unscalable activities of a traditional distributor scalable: Already now, each week the 1-2-Taste platform is taking 15,000 ‘virtual’ customer visits and is representing more than 100 suppliers – among which are global leaders in the industry.”
“We are now entering an exciting new phase of development, driven by our shared vision for a more innovative and sustainable food industry: What we want is to make ordering ingredients for food businesses as simple as ordering on Amazon.”
“It’s exciting now to also integrate gen AI features in our platform, so that we can inform customers better about exactly the right ingredients for their application.”
Schouten further adds, “We are grateful to have been able to get so far already thanks to the dedication of the 1-2-Taste team in Europe and India, and thanks to the suppliers and customers who are already embracing the transition to ordering food ingredients online.”
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