Planning to cook a delicious meal? Won’t it be perfect if the right ingredients, in the right proportion, get delivered to your doorstep? Well, that’s what the concept of ‘Recipe Box’ is all about. In the past few months, the Recipe box industry has witnessed an unprecedented surge in demand driven by lockdown and other restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the crisis and shutdowns, this sector emerged as one of the few winners.
Raised €28M
Gousto, the London-based recipe box provider, has seen a dramatic increase in orders, as customers are increasingly dependent on food delivery services since the outbreak of COVID-19. Recently, the company has secured £25M (approx €28M) from existing investor Perwyn and BGF, at a valuation of over $1B.
Achieves ‘Tech Unicorn’ status,
Post the funding, Gousto becomes the fourth UK company in 2020 to achieve ‘Tech Unicorn’ status, followed by Synk, Gymshark, and Cazoo. The UK company joins an elite group of 19 venture-backed UK businesses that have achieved a valuation of at least $1B in just 8 years.
With the funding, Gousto plans to open three new customer fulfillment centres and create over 1,000 new jobs. Notably, the company’s second fulfilment centre in Lincolnshire is scheduled to go live before the end of 2020.
To date, Gousto has raised over £155M (approx €171M) in equity from leading investors including Perwyn Private Equity, Canaccord Genuity, Unilever Ventures, BGF, MMC Ventures, and Joe Wicks.
Ingredients in the right proportions
Founded in 2012, James Carter, and Timo Boldt identified a need for convenient and easy to cook recipes that offered an exciting variety at home, whilst reducing food waste. And thus born Gousto!
The online meal-kit manufacturer provides all the ingredients in the right proportions to cook delicious meals at home. According to the company, the new recipes are updated every week. Further, the recipes are delivered right at the doorstep once a week. The company uses its proprietary algorithms which maximise the speed of pick, daily volumes, and pick accuracy, whilst minimising cost and food waste.
Profitable since Q4 2019
According to Gousto, revenues for the three years ending 31 December increased sixfold between 2016 and 2019. The growth has remained strong with revenues for the first half of 2020 surpassing the £83M (approx €92M ) reported for the whole of 2019. The company has been profitable since Q4 2019 and expects to generate a significant profit in 2020.
“Our obsession with technology enabled us to scale our operations at speed in the first half of the year to meet an unprecedented and rapid increase in demand, with monthly meal deliveries doubling from 2.5m in January to 5m in June. The latest £25M fund raise will enable Gousto to scale further and faster, triple capacity to serve more families during these difficult times, ensure the safety of our teams and create jobs across the entire business,” says Timo Boldt, Founder & CEO of Gousto.
Main image credits: Gousto