Hello Fresh in Germany and Blue Apron in the US dominate the funding picture for global meal kit startups, with $278M and $193M in total funding, respectively.
We used CB Insights data to track investments into other meal kit startups, which send users kits with recipes and pre-portioned ingredients to cook meals at home.
Meal kits startups earned a record high of $445M in funding in 2015 across 29 deals, up more than 3x in funding terms from $137M across 14 deals in 2014. Blue Apron and Hello Fresh accounted for just three deals in 2015 but brought in $345M of the $445M raised.
Even without Hello Fresh and Blue Apron’s rounds, 2015 would still have hit new highs in deals and funding. If we remove these two companies, 2015 would have seen 26 deals worth $100M, up from 12 deals totaling $37M in 2014.
Meal kit startups have raised $39M across 8 deals in 2016 year-to-date. Notable recent deals include Sun Basket’s $7M Series A (Sun Basket offers Paleo and Vegan options) and New York-based Marley Spoon which offers seasonal ingredients and raised a $17M Series B.
Over 70% of all meal kit deals have gone to early-stage companies receiving Seed or Series A rounds. If current trends persist, 2016 will end the year with less funding than 2014, although activity is still on track to cross the 20-deal threshold.
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