Mealhero, the European meal kit delivery startup, announced at the end of last week that it has raised a €900,000 (~$1.04 million) seed round of funding.
According to Dutch publication datanews (translated via Google Translate) roughly one-third of the €900k comes from loans, another third from subsidies from the Flemish Enterprise Agency and the final third from IMEC and an investment angel.
The Belgium-based Mealhero differentiates itself from other meal kit services on the market through its combination of frozen food and a dedicated connected cooking appliance. As we wrote about the company last year:
The mealhero service is comprised of three parts: a box of frozen ingredients delivered to your home, an app to help you assemble your ingredients into a recipe, and a connected three-container steamer to cook them automatically.
The app knows what [Mealhero] ingredients you have and can suggest a recipe, or you can assemble a combination of foods how you like. The frozen ingredients include vegetables, starches, and meats and come in their own containers, each with an RFID label. Once selected, you scan each container on the steamer and place the ingredient in its own compartment. The steamer knows how long to cook each individual component, so you don’t have to actually do any cooking.
One of the benefits of Mealhero’s approach is that since it ships frozen food, the ingredients will last longer, so you can make them when you like. More traditional meal kit companies send fresh ingredients that spoil more quickly, so you have to make them relatively quickly, whether you want to eat that meal or not.
This new seed funding adds to the €79,151 Mealhero raised on Kickstarter last year as well as an undisclosed amount of funding the company had prior to Kickstarter. The Mealhero device is available for purchase (the company’s website says 100 smart steamers are available for delivery at the end of Sept.), with the Starter Pack costing €299 (~$350 USD).
Mealhero was also a finalist at the Startup Showcase at our first Smart Kitchen Summit: Europe earlier this year. Be the first to see the next generation of food tech startups at our flagship Smart Kitchen Summit: North America event in Seattle next month!
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