HelloFresh Cooks Up $50 Million Series D From Insight Venture Partners

As we inch ever closer to a truly Wall-E world, HelloFresh has secured $50 million in Series D funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from existing investor Phenomen VC.

HelloFresh, an on-demand grocery-delivery service, currently sends over 1 million meals per month, and the “vast majority” of those meals are going to repeat customers.

The Germany-based company competes with Blue Apron and Plated to deliver pre-portioned ingredients and instructions so that you can make a 30-minute meal that tastes great and doesn’t require rifling through any grocery store aisles.

HelloFresh is just a tad more expensive than the other services (when you’re buying for two people), but co-founder Hamish Shephard explains that 100 percent of the extra cost goes into sourcing fresh, organic, local food.

“Nothing is ever frozen,” said Shephard. “Food arrives in our kitchens early each morning, direct from our local suppliers, and is shipped to customers in the afternoon of the same day.”

But it’s not just the quality of the ingredients that makes HelloFresh a contender. The level of flexibility and the deep-diving information given with each meal makes for an even more seamless experience than Seamless.

HelloFresh was one of the first grocery-delivery platforms to offer a vegetarian option, and again to offer a family option that serves four people instead of two. Plus, users can see where each item in their boxes came from, along with individual product information for each ingredient.

“It’s not just about making sure people have an easy, healthy meal when they get home,” said Shephard. “It’s about making sure people can shut down their digital devices and do something creative with their hands, because at the end of the meal, they’ll be so much happier for it.”

Before this latest round, HelloFresh had raised a total of $17 million in funding, reining in a $10 million Series B in 2012 and a $7.5 million Series C last year. Though further along developmentally, this latest $50 million round gives HelloFresh space to compete with Blue Apron, which also recently raised a $50 million round of funding on a $450 million valuation.

HelloFresh is currently available in six countries, and reaches 75 percent of the United States, with new delivery zones in Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska and Louisiana.

To learn more about HelloFresh, click here.