Mosaic Foods Raises $6 Million to Grow Omnichannel Presence

Frozen plant-based meal delivery company Mosaic Foods yesterday announced it has raised $6 million in a seed round to support a planned retail launch as well as the growth of its direct-to-consumer business.

The round was led by Gather Ventures, with participation from Greycroft and Alleycorp. The new funding brings Mosaic’s total capital raised to $10 million since its launch in 2019.

The Brooklyn, New York-based company, co-founded by former Blue Apron senior director of operations Matt Davis, offers over 40 frozen meals including veggie bowls, soups and oat bowls which currently ship to over 40% of the U.S. from its 16,000 square foot kitchen in New Jersey. According to the company, it’s on pace to hit one million meals sold by the end of the year.

Focusing on product innovation and building up its internal infrastructure has given the company “a solid foundation to expand upon,” Davis said, making it an “ideal time” to raise funding to grow its plant-based frozen food platform.

Frozen foods have seen unprecedented growth since the pandemic began, outpacing the growth of total food and beverage sales, with frozen dinners and entrees contributing significantly to this growth, according to IRI. While ecommerce sales for the category are on the rise, the brick-and-mortar channel still holds 87.5% dollar share for frozen foods.

As Mosaic looks to reach more shoppers, the funding will be used to help the D2C brand establish an omnichannel presence. Retail is a “natural extension” for the company, Davis said, but would not share details on when it will move into retail and what products it plans to offer.

“Direct-to-consumer has been a great first channel for us,” Davis said. “It helped us successfully launch the Mosaic brand, build our loyal customer base and scale our business. But to truly enable widespread access to plant-based eating, we believe that we need to be omnichannel and provide a host of different ways for consumers to purchase our products.”

The D2C business will continue to scale, Davis said, with the goal to soon ship to the majority of the country. Because the company has moved to its own facility and sources its ingredients locally, Davis said it has been able to avoid most supply chain issues many food companies have been facing in shipping frozen.

The company also plans to add more product offerings to its platform. Last month, it launched a multi-serve line called Family Meals, and earlier this year debuted Mosaic+, a selection of meals created in collaboration with New York City chefs like Pierra Thiam, co-founder of Yolele Foods and African restaurant Teranga. The collection was expanded this fall to include influencers and food personalities like food blogger and TV host Erika Vetrini, with additional collaborations slated to launch next year.

“We are excited to continue offering chefs and food personalities a pathway to CPG that, in turn, creates really exciting dining experiences for our customers,” Davis said.

While consumers turned to frozen foods for convenience during the pandemic, Davis said the company has seen an evolution in the category that he believes will continue post-pandemic as consumers increasingly embrace frozen meals for their longer shelf-lives and minimization of food waste.

“It has been interesting to see that even as things are opening back up, we haven’t seen a dip in our sales,” he said. “This is for a couple of factors: people are still prioritizing convenience, but also because people have tried more frozen options in the past year and are returning to those that actually deliver on the promise of delicious-ness and health. Both are key focuses for Mosaic.”