London-based unicorn Gousto, a meal-kit manufacturer and retailer that uses AI and automation to provide choice and personalisation, announced that following its primary fundraiser in January 2022, it has completed a $230M (nearly €205.6M) secondary placement, led by SoftBank VF2 and introduces Fidelity International, Grosvenor Food & AgTech and Railpen to its share register.
Gousto has raised $290M (approx €259.5M) in equity and is currently valued at $1.7B (approx €1.52B).
Recent funding
The development follows the company’s $150M funding raised in January, which included a $100M primary equity capital from SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of Gousto, says, “This successful Placing follows the primary capital raise announced in January and is further testament to the relevance and appetite for Gousto’s leading recipe box solution, as we meet an accelerating consumer need to eat healthily and sustainably, at value.”
“I’m also delighted to welcome new shareholders to our investor base. Our new investors, Fidelity International, Railpen and Grosvenor Food & AgTech are all leading investors in ESG; their investment is a testament to the important role Gousto is playing in reducing food waste and carbon emissions in the food supply chain,” adds Boldt.
“Over 60 recipes every week”
Two friends, Timo Boldt and James Carter (who has left the company as per his LinkedIn profile), who shared a passion for food and cooking, founded Gousto in 2012 to pioneer the recipe box offering in the UK. The company provides all ingredients in their right proportions to cook delicious meals at home while reducing food waste.
Currently, Gousto has more than 220+ people on its tech team and is looking to expand it to 500 people by the end of 2022. The company’s focus is on data and artificial intelligence, which power all its operations including its automated fulfilment centres in Lincolnshire and Warrington. Its intelligent use of data has facilitated the creation of the first recipe box recommendation engine – ‘the Spotify for food’.
Gousto claims to offer more choice than any other recipe box, with over 60 recipes on the menu that change every week. Over one third of them can be customised, by switching proteins for example.
Doubling recipe choice in the past two years, Gousto caters to all cuisines, tastes, and dietary and health requirements, with healthy, convenient, global and family recipes, along with an extended Joe Wicks partnership in 2022.
“Protecting the planet”
A recent study by environmental services company Foodsteps revealed that Gousto meals produced 23 per cent fewer carbon emissions than the equivalent meals from supermarket stores, driven by minimising food waste, a tighter supply chain and reductions in plastic usage.
Each Gousto order saves 2 kgs of food waste and 7 kgs of CO2 emissions, compared to the equivalent meals purchased at a supermarket store.
According to a statement, in 2020 alone, shopping at Gousto saved 39,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions, the equivalent of removing over 14,000 cars from UK roads for a year. How? In a blog post, Gousto says it plans and pre-portions all its ingredients, which reduces food waste to almost zero in its factories, and in consumers’ homes.
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