Little Spoon Raises $44M After Platform Expansion
What Happened?
Fresh baby and toddler meal company Little Spoon announced today that it had raised $44 million from investors. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from previous investor Kairos HQ.
Little Spoon, which sells fresh baby food, premade meals for children and powdered nutritional booster supplements direct-to-consumer, has raised $73 million in total since its founding in 2017. This recent round values the company at roughly $200 million, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier today.
CEO and co-founder Ben Lewis said the company has seen 300% growth since its inception, with a particular uptick in sales during the Covid-19 pandemic. To meet the increased demand, the company has grown its team from 10 to 33 team members in the last year alone.
Why Now?
To fund ongoing expansion, particularly around Plates, the company’s growing line for children 10 and under.
“This [round] was really just about pouring gas on the things that we see are working, that are resonating and really just continuing to drive this engine that we’ve that we’ve built around solving the needs of this new generation of parents,” Lewis said. “Plates has really been a big driver of growth for us.”
The company launched Plates in September, 2020 after receiving ongoing consumer requests for products geared towards older children. The initial response was a sellout, powered partially by the fact that children were attending school remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now available in 23 rotating options, such as Cauli Croquettes, Black Bean Pupusas, BBQ Chicken, Plates retail for $5 a meal (plus the cost of shipping). Little Spoon also offers parents the ability to add on dipping sauces for a nominal charge. Each Plate lasts 14 days in the fridge or can be frozen for up to two months.
Some of the money will be used to help expand the line, bringing on new co-packers in order to fulfill demand. Lewis said Little Spoon is very hands-on with the manufacturing process, keeping staff onsite at contract manufacturing facilities.
Little Spoon also plans to invest in adding even more team members and further developing marketing campaigns to reach shoppers. A key part of the marketing strategy is building out Is This Normal, the company’s parenting platform, which consists of blog posts, advice columns and an online game.
What’s the Opportunity
It’s been a big month for investment in brands offering better-for-you baby food and toddler meals, including Tiny Organics, Serenity Kids, Raised Real and Once Upon a Farm.
While initially the vision for some of these brands was to build out a new cohort of children’s meal options in physical stores, the focus has increasingly shifted to that of D2C models. As the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted shopping excursions, sending more consumers online, buying baby food on the internet became more common.
However, the question still remains whether these brands intend to function as long term partners for parents by offering products that don’t just cater to one developmental stage of a child’s life. For Lewis and Little Spoon, the goal is to continue to build out a suite of products that works for children of all ages.
“We look at it as an opportunity to continue to serve the needs of our customers as their children grow through various products and solutions along the way,” Lewis said. “We’re really the only company that’s creating this full system, starting with the baby’s first bite, all the way through grade school.”
