Daily Harvest Completes $43M Series B Round
VC News Daily – December 19, 2017
New York, NY – Daily Harvest, a subscription service specializing in frozen, plant-based, one-step-prep foods, has raised $43 million in Series B funding.
Today, Daily Harvest announced a $43 million Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with significant participation from VMG Partners. Additional investors joining the round include M13, chef and restaurateur Bobby Flay, Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, and actress Haylie Duff.
Daily Harvest launched in 2015 to address the common challenge of integrating more whole, unprocessed fruits and vegetables into diets amid busy lifestyles. By partnering directly with organic farms, Daily Harvest is able to harvest produce at peak ripeness and freeze it on-site, locking in nutrients that typically degrade during the traditional grocery supply chain. Each recipe is co-designed by a Michelin-trained chef and nutritionist, blending farm-frozen produce with superfoods that add both flavor and functional health benefits beyond their nutritional profile.
The direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand has acquired over 100,000 subscribers nationwide and expanded its line of pre-portioned cups to include smoothies, overnight oats, chia parfaits, sundaes, and soups – all ready in minutes.
“We’re thrilled about Lightspeed and VMG coming onboard to help scale our business,” said Rachel Drori, Founder and CEO of Daily Harvest. “Their combined expertise in the technology and consumer sectors will help us realize our mission of making functional, nutrient-dense food accessible and convenient, ultimately contributing to the democratization of wellness.”
This new round of funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand farm partnerships, enhance customer experience and reach more people across the country.
“Daily Harvest is the first major innovation in the frozen category since TV dinners were introduced in the 1950s,” said Alex Taussig, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “Rachel and her team understand the modern consumer’s relationship with food and have been able to deliver high-quality product that can be prepared in minutes via their subscription service. Daily Harvest is one of the fastest growing and most capital efficient e-commerce businesses we’ve seen at Lightspeed. We’re thrilled to partner with Rachel and her team on their mission to reinvigorate your freezer.”
Carle Stenmark, Vice President at VMG Partners, commented, “Daily Harvest is building a platform that is changing the reputation of frozen by delivering highly nutritious, extremely healthy food and beverage options in a convenient and portable manner. Rachel and the amazing team at Daily Harvest have leveraged their unique business model to quickly adapt to consumers’ lifestyles and preferences, meeting needs and delivering consumer experiences that traditional frozen CPG businesses cannot.”
This investment comes on the heels of Daily Harvest’s Series A Funding in June 2017, which included investments from Oscar Award-winning actress and founder of Goop Gwyneth Paltrow and tennis champion and entrepreneur Serena Williams. Paltrow and Williams were joined by Collaborative Fund, WME Ventures, Rubicon Venture Capital and 14W as well as angel investors Nick Brown, Natalie Massenet, and Carter Reum, among others.
ABOUT DAILY HARVEST
Founded in 2015, Daily Harvest offers a solution to the challenge of eating nutrient-rich, unprocessed meals while leading a busy life. The New York-based direct-to-consumer company delivers convenient, plant-based smoothies, overnight oats, chia parfaits, sundaes and soups to freezers across the U.S. As one of the fastest-growing e-commerce brands, Daily Harvest is reimagining the frozen food category using a “farm-freezing” process — harvesting fruits and vegetables at peak ripeness and immediately freezing them to lock in nutrients and flavor. Each recipe combines organic produce with flavor-packed superfoods and is ready to eat in minutes, prepared by adding a liquid and blending or heating. For more information, visit www.daily-harvest.com.
ABOUT LIGHTSPEED VENTURE PARTNERS
Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise and Consumer sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally, including Snap, The Honest Company, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, and GrubHub. The Firm currently manages over $4 billion of committed capital and invests in the U.S. and internationally, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India and China. For more information, visit www.lsvp.com.
ABOUT VMG PARTNERS
VMG Partners partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to grow highly innovative branded consumer products companies in the lower middle market. Since its inception in 2005, VMG has partnered closely with founders and management teams and provided financial resources and strategic guidance to drive growth and value creation. VMG’s defined set of target industries includes food, beverage, wellness, personal care, beauty, and pet and household brands. Representative past and present partner companies include BabyGanics, Drunk Elephant, Justin’s, KIND Healthy Snacks, Pirate’s Booty, Pretzel Crisps, Quest Nutrition, Spindrift, Sun Bum, and Vega. VMG Partners is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.vmgpartners.com.
Source: VC News Daily