Blue Apron competitor HelloFresh planning to raise up to $353 million in IPO

HelloFresh, the Berlin-based cooking kit delivery company, revealed that it’s planning to raise up to $353 million in an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The move would value HelloFresh at up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in the public markets. This is below the last private market valuation of 2 billion euros.

The IPO may come as a surprise to some, following the lackluster performance of Blue Apron in the public markets this year. Blue Apron debuted in June on the New York Stock Exchange and is already trading at just 50% of its IPO price.

Blue Apron’s struggles have stemmed from investor concerns surrounding Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and also challenges with customer retention. HelloFresh is hoping that investors in European markets feel differently about its business.

Blue Apron and HelloFresh are part of a competitive cooking kit delivery category, which also includes Plated, which recently sold to Albertson’s.

HelloFresh said it had about 435 million euros in revenue for the first six months of this year, which works out to about $514 million. Losses were nearly 57 million euros for the same timeframe, or roughly $67 million. Blue Apron had $483 million in revenue and $84 million in losses for the same timeframe, making HelloFresh the slightly bigger competitor of the two.

The business has received backing from Rocket Internet, a German technology company. Other HelloFresh investors include Insight Venture Partners and Baillie Gifford.