BRIEF: Vegetarian meal delivery startup Simple Feast raises $35m Series B to take on the US

Vegetarian meal delivery service Simple Feast has raised $33 million in a Series B round led by 14W, featuring several returning investors, like Balderton Capital. The Danish startup will use the funds to bring its service to the US early next year. This comes after its $12 million Series A last year.

“The future of food does not just belong to plants, but will be both plant-based and unprocessed. This movement is pivotal to save not only our planet, but also human health. With this investment, we can continue our journey and bring our products to more people, in existing as well as new markets, while also strengthening our R&D efforts in new food innovation,” said founder Jakob Jønck, in an interview with TechCrunch. He was co-founder of Endomondo, which has since been acquired by MyFitnessPal.

AFN has reached out to Simple Feast and 14W for comment. Stay tuned for updates.

Simple Feast’s landing page flashes “Let’s Save The Planet – Feast By Feast”. Its mission to save the Earth is resonates through the packaging it uses, which is solely FSC-approved cardboard boxes. The startup’s also uses all-organic produce, as well as an environmentally-friendly cooling element to keep its food fresh. It was founded in 2014 with a vision of getting Danes to make more food at home. Before being a full-fledged food delivery app on March 2017, it functioned as an encyclopedia of hundreds of recipes from some of the world’s best chefs. It’s also cut down on the meat content in its dishes to zero, from the 20% they used before.

In the release, Alex Zubillaga from 14W said Simple Feast has the opportunity to become a “global, category-defining brand as they expand to the US early next year”. Its entry into the US would capitalize on the burgeoning interest in vegetarian and vegan diets. The terms have been Googled 550% more over the past five years. There number of American vegans grew six times to 19.6 million in 2017, from nearly 4 million in 2014. Though not exactly veganism (purists would agree), 1 in 3 Americans have stopped or reduced their meat consumption.

What about the rest of the world?

Over in the APAC region, vegetarianism is also on the rise. Most recently, vegan food delivery service kawkawveg has been making waves in Malaysia for its variety of dishes- including Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese. Australia was the most popular country for veganism in 2018. New Zealand came in at third place. So it’s safe to say the world is shifting towards a more plant-based diet. Even partially.

Check out our coverage of Singapore-based abillionveg, the ‘Yelp for Vegans,’ which had also recently sealed a funding round. Click here.