Gousto, the meal kit company, has raised £18m in equity funding to continue development of its customer facing AI recipe recommendation tool, through which half of customer orders are now placed. Gousto will continue to prioritise the majority of its investment in technology to accelerate growth.

The funding has come from existing shareholders: Unilever Ventures; Hargreave Hale; BGF Ventures; MMC Ventures and Angel CoFund and new backer global health influencer, Joe Wicks, who is behind a new range that launches this month – a minimum of four new recipes a week, including Joe’s Veggie Spag Bol’ and Satay Chicken Lettuce Wraps to Herby Crusted Fish, Root Veg Chips & Peas and 10-Min Nifty Veggie Noodles.

Also see: Why recipe box firm Gousto is coming to eat supermarkets’ lunch

Year on year growth has been 170%. Since launched the firm has raised £75m, a £28.5m investment round in March 2018, which facilitated increasing its investment in to tech deploying capital to double factory capacity and launch a customer facing AI recipe recommendation tool, through which half of customer orders are now placed.

Timo Boldt, chief executive officer and founder of Gousto said: “Our customer is at the heart of Gousto – every aspect of our business is about them. Our new funding enables us to do more for them: from developing leading AI technologies that improve their shopping experience, to launching new product ranges that appeal to their needs.

“In March, we said we’d win even more of the one billion meals eaten in the UK every week, by accelerating our proposition and giving customers the mealtimes they actually want. Nine months later and the proof is in the pudding – we’re making huge waves and delivering tremendous growth, by focusing on the areas the rest of the grocery market isn’t.”