The Checkout: Actual Veggies Raises $2.3M; Gopuff Secures $1B
Welcome to The Checkout: an express lane for the weekly news you need to know, always 10 items or less.
Actual Veggies Raises $2.3 Million
Veggie burger producer Actual Veggies this week announced it has raised $2.3 million in a funding round from Electric Feel Ventures founder Austin Rosen, Big Idea Ventures, Rosetree Capital and Inter Miami CF soccer player Kieran Gibbs. The new investment brings the company’s total capital raised to-date to $2.8 million.
“Each of our investors are very unique and bring diverse expertise and insights into the mix,” Co-CEO and co-founder Hailey Swartz said. “But the most important thing to us was that each has a knowledge of the plant-based space and all are fully on board with our approach and mission.”
Launched in March 2020, the New York City-based company offers four varieties of patties, each with a different blend of vegetables and legumes. According to Swartz, the new funding will go toward growing the brand’s product portfolio with seasonal and limited edition products, as well as investment in increased marketing efforts and new equipment to streamline its production process. The company currently works with co-packers in New Jersey and Colorado.
The funding will also support Actual Veggies’ expansion into brick and mortar retail, recently gaining distribution for three of its SKUs chainwide at Sprouts. Though customers now have a plethora of plant-based burger options, Swartz said the burgers’ vegetable-only base will help the brand stand out among other options also sold in the refrigerated section.
“Unlike other plant-based burgers in the market, we aren’t trying to replicate the taste of meat,” Swartz said. “Our products focus on letting the natural flavors and nutritional value of real, actual vegetables and legumes speak for themselves.”
Gopuff Secures $1 Billion
Digital delivery platform Gopuff today announced it has secured $1 billion in new funding, giving the company a $15 billion valuation. The new investment is the latest in a wave of capital Gopuff has raised over the last year. In March the company closed $1.15 billion funding, which at the time doubled its valuation to $8.9 billion, which followed a $380 million round in October 2020.
Participants in the round included new investors such as Blackstone’s Horizon platform, Guggenheim Investments, Hedosophia, MSD Partners and Adage Capital, along with existing investors Fidelity Management and Research Company, Softbank Vision Fund 1, Atreides Management and Eldridge.
Founded in 2013 by co-CEOs Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola, the Philadelphia-based company initially offered shoppers packed food and drink products, but has grown to also sell home goods, medications, alcohol and prepared food. It currently operates 450 distribution warehouses across North America and the UK, which includes 285 micro-fulfillment centers. The company said it plans to use the new capital to further expand across North America, the UK and Europe, grow its team and enhance its technology.
“This funding round is further validation of the success of our model and will enable us to continue to do what we do best: deliver an unmatched customer experience,” Ilishayev said in a press release.
Since its funding round in March, the company has made several strategic moves to grow the business, including the acquisitions of UK-based last-mile delivery platform Fancy and routing and fleet optimizing tech startup rideOS. It also launched fresh food delivery platform Gopuff Kitchen and completed its integration with BevMo, after acquiring the alcohol retailer in November 2020.
HelloFresh Market Launches in the U.S.
This week meal kit company HelloFresh debuted its online marketplace HelloFresh Market in the U.S., allowing consumers to add snacks, spices, produce and other grocery essentials to their weekly orders. The marketplace offerings roll out to customers over the coming months.
HelloFresh Market first debuted in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, offering consumers over 150 add-on products. The U.S. marketplace will include products from brands such as Epicurean Butter, Pillsbury, Intelligentsia Coffee, Annie’s and Vive. It will also offer chef-curated bundles like pasta and sauce, cheese and meats, and fully-cooked chicken breasts, along with seasonal bundles, the company said,
The marketplace launch is part of the meal kit company’s strategy to diversify its offerings beyond dinnertime recipes, as part of its goal to become a “fully integrated food solutions group,” according to the company.
“Building an exceptional meal-kit experience over the past 10 years has been key to establishing strong market leadership,” HelloFresh U.S. CEO Uwe Voss said. “Through our state-of-the-art supply chain and technology infrastructure, we will provide superior full-service delivery for all meal occasions, and capture a greater share of our customers’ overall food budget.”
Manitoba Harvest Announces Research Partnership
Hemp food maker Manitoba Harvest this week announced a new research partnership with a number of industry groups through Protein Industries Canada to develop new hemp and pea protein offerings. The goal is to increase applications for the proteins by improving textures and increasing their protein and starch contents.
Manitoba Harvest is joining forces with food tech company NRGene Canada, ag tech platform Farmer’s Business Network Canada and plant breeding company Pulse Genetics, who are together investing $3.3 million in the project. Protein Industries Canada, a nonprofit which invests in projects that can advance the country’s position in the plant-based food industry, invested $1.8 million.
“By focusing on an established protein crop, like peas, and one that’s still growing in popularity, like hemp, [NRGene, Farmers Business Network Canada, Pulse Genetics and Manitoba Harvest are] helping diversify our sector even further—an important step in opening new markets and establishing the country as a leader in meeting consumer plant-based food demands,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said in a press release.
Pulse Genetics will focus on pea innovation, while Farmer’s Business Network Canada will zero in on the hemp sector. Both will develop new plant varieties using NRGene’s genomic technology, which should help shorten crop breeding cycles. Manitoba Harvest will simultaneously develop a pea-hemp flour blend using existing varieties of the proteins, which will then operate as a base recipe for when the new varieties of pea and hemp proteins are ready.
”We are committed to providing our customers with the best hemp products available,” Manitoba Harvest president Jared Simon said. “Developing plant-based protein products with superior taste, functionality and nutrition aligns perfectly with our objectives as a brand, and we have a history of leadership at the farm level, working directly with growers to improve quality throughout the hemp supply chain.”
