Hungryroot Raises $3.7m To Shake Up Convenience Food

NEW YORK, United States – Hungryroot, a brand of fresh vegetable-based meals sold direct to consumer has raised $3.7 million in funding from top venture capital firms, including Lerer Hippeau Ventures, backers of both Birchbox and Refinery29.  

The enterprising startup says it will use the funding to expand its current product line and scale the business nationally.  

“By building direct-to-consumer relationships, we can more efficiently tap into early adopters, learn from them and optimize our products around their preferences,” said Hungryroot founder and CEO, Ben McKean, who previously founded the nation’s leading restaurant yield management technology, Savored, acquired by Groupon in 2012.

“With Hungryroot, our goal is to positively brighten customers’ daily lives through delicious, nutritious eating, and we feel that technology now positions us to do so in ways that were previously not possible.”

Incorporating tech-enabled data to continually improve its entire consumer experience, Hungryroot has carved out a competitive edge in the packaged food space, one that Lerer Hippeau Ventures believes has enormous potential.

“While the restaurant and grocery segments of the food industry are being fundamentally disrupted by e-commerce sales, the packaged foods segment is still dependent on third-party distribution and is lacking in real-time customer feedback loops,” explained Ben Lerer of Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

“We believe a technology-driven packaged foods sector will emerge in the coming years, and we think Hungryroot is best positioned to be that category leader.”

Hungryroot say they are defining a new “vegetable-forward” food category in which vegetables are the star of the plate and proteins play a supporting role. The New York-based startup focuses on vegetable-based meal kits that can be prepared in under seven minutes.

Following rapid growth, Hungryroot which previously raised  $2 million in a seed round last year from Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Mesa Ventures and others, can currently be purchased in the U.S. directly or via AmazonFresh and FreshDirect.

Implementing a type of technology called “modified atmosphere packaging” to extend its food’s shelf life to 14 days, the business is able to to offer a fresh option in a category that’s essentially defined by frozen options sold in grocery stores, McKean told Business Insider earlier this year.

As pioneers in the fresh, all-natural convenience food category, the brand has ambitious aspirations. We’re not trying to be a vegan company McKean explained, the mainstream market is where Hungryroot belongs.