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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Updated: Plant-Based Meal Kit Company Purple Carrot Acquired by Japanese Grocer Oisix Last Month

UPDATE: Purple Carrot sent out a press release officially announcing the deal, though the numbers they provide are different. From that announcement:

Purple Carrot, the plant-based meal kit company with operations in the U.S., today announced that it will be acquired by Tokyo-based Oisix ra daichi Inc. (Oisix), Japan’s largest meal kit and organic food delivery service…

Purple Carrot’s corporate headquarters will remain in Massachusetts, and the entire executive leadership team will maintain their roles in the organization. Terms of the deal include an upfront payment of $12.8 million, with an earn-out potential of an additional $17.2 million through 2021, creating a total deal value of up to $30 million.

This runs counter to the financial document that Oisix released on April 25, which listed a $4 million upfront payment. Additionally a representative of Purple Carrot told The Spoon that the ownership numbers listed in that document were incorrect.

We are still looking into this and will update as more information becomes available.

OUR ORIGINAL POST FROM 5/21/19 FOLLOWS:
Evidently, plant-based meal kit company Purple Carrot was acquired by Japanese online grocer Oisix last month. It happened quietly, at least here in the U.S.; there’s no mention of the acquisition on the company’s blog or press page, and the only press release for the acquisition appears to be in Japanese from Oisix.

We learned about it from a Linkedin post today by Sean Butler, Managing Director, Demand Chain for LIDD (and former SVP at Chef’d). From that post:

Well-known meal kit company Purple Carrot has entered into an agreement to sell itself to Japanese online grocer Oisix ra daichi, according to documents published on the grocer’s website. Oisix ra daichi will pay a mere $4 million USD for Purple Carrot, with a further maximum payout of $17 million due if Purple Carrot fully achieves its three-year earn-out goals.

From the Oisix press release (in Japanese), the acquisition was announced on April 25, 2019. Purple Carrot had raised $10 million so far, including a $4 million investment from fruit company, Del Monte last year. Oisix released a financial document on April 25, outlining more specifics about the deal, including that Purple Carrot had sales of more than $40 million in 2018, and had losses of more than $4 million in 2017 and 2108. Additionally, CEO Andy Levitt and President Brian Greenfield held a combined 80.4 percent of the shares in the company. As Butler writes, this initial $4 million purchase price leaves just $784,000 total for all the investors.

Purple Carrot’s low exit is emblematic of what has been a tough year for meal kit companies. Albertsons laid off ten percent of Plated’s corporate staff and Blue Apron announced this week it could get delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it’s share price had remained below a dollar since May.

Despite all this sturm and drang, there are still some signs of life in the meal kit market. Kroger is piloting a new line of Home Chef meal kits, and Amazon debuted its meal kits at Whole Foods. Additionally, according to research from Nielsen, meal kits are still growing, driven mostly by their move into retail.

In addition to the straight-up plant-based meal kits, Purple Carrot also created TB12 meal kits in partnership with New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. Wonder if that Super Bowl champion lost anything on that deal with this news.

We reached out to Purple Carrot and will update this story when we hear back.

Smart Kitchen Summit Heads to Japan This August

In 2014, I noticed that the technologies I had been writing about for over a decade in digital media, networking, big data, automation, and mobility were beginning to touch how people make, discover, buy, cook and consume food.

In short, I realized the world of food and cooking were in the early days of a large-scale shift, one that would result in significant innovation over the next few decades in product design, food science and, perhaps most importantly, business models.

And so with the biggest changes still ahead, I created the Smart Kitchen Summit in 2015 with the hope of bringing the people from the worlds of food, appliances, retail, and tech together to have a conversation about the future. In just two short years, my little event has become the leading global summit on the future of food, cooking, and the kitchen. Last year’s event grew by 60%, and this year SKS is expanding to two full days with the most impressive lineup of speakers yet.

As we have grown SKS, I also realized early on that each region’s story is different, impacted by a unique mix of culture, business dynamics, and consumer tastes. Because of this, we decided would take SKS on the road, not only because I wanted to bring our community to other parts of the world, but also because I thought it important to incorporate these stories into our community as we look to help map the future of the kitchen.

And so with that, I am thrilled to announce our first non-US event, the Smart Kitchen Summit Japan.

To put together this exciting event which will occur in Tokyo on August 25th, I worked with a wonderful partner in SigmaXYZ, one of the leading strategy consultancies in Japan. My first contact with SigmaXYZ was with Hirotaka Tanaka, who had attended SKS2016 in Seattle.  A few months later I connected with Hiro and his associate Akiko Okada at CES in Las Vegas, where we realized we had a similar excitement and interest in how innovation will impact the food, cooking and kitchen ecosystems. It didn’t take long for us to start discussing SKS Japan, and now I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Hiro, Akiko and the team at SigmaXYZ to bring together our first international SKS.

We’ve created a day packed with engaging sessions with visionaries from Japanese companies such as Cookpad and Oisix, US innovators such as PicoBrew, SideChef and Hestan Cue, as well as thought leaders from the Europe such as Johnny Grey to discuss the future of food and cooking technology, design and business models.

In addition to a jam-packed day full of sessions, but we are going to highlight startup innovation with a Startup Showcase. The Showcase, sponsored by Oisix, the largest meal kit delivery company in Japan, will feature both Japanese and US innovators pitching their technology.

In short, we have put together a summit in which we will explore how technology, culture and business model innovation will impact the Japanese and Asian kitchens, as well as explore how innovation originating in Japan could change the face of food and cooking across the globe.

If you would like to attend SKS Japan, I’d love to have you join us in Tokyo. You can buy tickets here, but I would suggest your hurry, as tickets are limited.

If you’re interested in participating as a sponsor, feel free to drop us a line and we’ll get back to you.

I look forward to seeing you in Tokyo in August.

Image credit: Flickr user Mirai Takahashi under creative commons license.