Start-up Hello Fresh has welcomed Vorwerk Ventures as a new investor in the business and convinced existing backers Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Kinnevik AB to participate further.
The business, an e-commerce provider of recipes and matching ingredients, has received a ‘high seven-figure sum’, reported to be worth $10 million (£6.2 million), to fuel the growth of its core business.
To date, Hello Fresh operates in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France Australia and the US. The company was set up in December 2011 by Jessica Nilsson, Thomas Griesel and Dominik Richter and is now based at an office in London. It has closed one previous funding round involving Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Kinnevik AB, which was for an undisclosed amount.
Richter, founder and global CEO of Hello Fresh, comments, ‘We are thrilled that we could complete our second financing round successfully. Hello Fresh has developed so much better than we could have imagined one year ago at foundation.
‘We will use the fresh funds to accelerate growth further and aggressively manifest our market leadership position. Our goal is to increase revenue ten-fold in 2013.’
Richter also believes that Hello Fresh will ‘massively benefit’ from Vorwerk Ventures’ expertise in direct sales and social commerce.
Ed Boyes, marketing director at Hello Fresh UK, says that the UK is one of the most developed online grocery markets globally and the ‘huge growth’ it has seen in the past year demonstrates British consumers’ belief in the Hello Fresh concept.
Boyes adds, ‘The business may still be its infancy but this new financial investment will enable us to capitalise on the success of the last 12 months and develop Hello Fresh UK into a more widely used, viable alternative to supermarket shopping.’
Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures is the Venture Capital arm of the Vorwerk Group. The investment focus is on fast-growing companies with direct-to-consumer business models. Vorwerk Ventures’ portfolio includes companies in Germany, Austria and the US.
