London-based vegan meal delivery service Allplants announced today that it had raised £7.5 million ($9.9 million) in Series A funding. The round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Felix Capital, Swedish VC firm Otiva, and others (h/t Techcrunch).
Founded in 2017, Allplants delivers ready-made plant-based meals, such as the BBQ Burrito Bowl and the Golden Sesame Satay, either on a subscription or individual basis. The meals are “quick frozen” and come in packs of six, the idea being that consumers will store them in their freezer to take out and heat up as needed. Much like buying frozen food from the grocery store, except fancier and delivered to your doorstep.
Weekly subscription meals shake out to £4.99 ($6.57) per serving, while one-off meal pack deliveries are £5.67 ($7.46) per serving. Which is a pretty good deal, especially since users can adjust their delivery frequency with relative ease.
According to the Techcrunch article, Allplants “reckons it is the U.K.’s largest Series A round for a vegan company.” While I haven’t seen anything to back that statement up — or to challenge it — I am sure that the vegan meal delivery and frozen meals spaces are quickly heating up.
A few months ago Del Monte invested a $4 million in vegan meal kit service Purple Carrot. Denmark’s Simple Feast raised $12 million for its plant-based ready-made meal delivery service. Though they haven’t announced any funding yet, Seattle-based Buttermilk Co makes microwaveable South Indian meals, all of which are vegetarian. It’s not strictly vegan, but Mealhero’s business model also reminds me of Allplants: the Belgium-based company recently raised $1.04 million for its meal kit service which combines frozen meals with a connected cooking appliance.
The idea of combining the convenience of door-to-door delivery with the longevity and flexibility of frozen food is smart. And though Allplants’ decision to go plant-based does put them in a bit of a niche, the timing is right: demand for meat alternatives has been skyrocketing lately, increasing by 20% last year alone. What a few years ago might have been a limiting factor is now be a driving factor to Allplants’ success, which means we might be seeing a few more record-breaking fundraises for plant-based meal companies in the future.