Freshly Bringing Freshly Made Meals To The East Coast

Freshly, an overnight delivery meal service similar in concept to Blue Apron, announced on Tuesday (July 12) that it has secured $21 million in funding and plans to expand its business to all 50 states, as well as New York City, according to Crain’s New York Business.

The funding comes in a Series B round from Insight Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Jason Finger, cofounder of the takeout ordering service Seamless, according to Crain’s.

Unlike Blue Apron, however, Freshly’s meals come fully prepared and pre-packaged by the company’s “team of chefs.” All you have to do is pop the meals in the microwave, and they are ready to eat in minutes. A box of six meals costs $69, or the equivalent of $11.50 per meal.

Freshly’s weekly menu is also heavily “paleo”-based, with more proteins included in each meal over carbohydrates.

“Every Freshly meal saves you at least an hour that you would’ve spent shopping, cooking and cleaning,” Freshly says on its website. “Spend more time doing what you love, with people you love.”

Freshly said that it plans to use the $21 million in funding to open an East Coast facility later this year, and Cofounder and Chief Executive Michael Wystrach said that he expects the company to double staff in its Manhattan-based office to about 60 employees by 2017. That’s when Freshly also hopes to be able to make delivery options available nationwide as well, Wystrach said.

From its existing facility in Phoenix, Freshly currently serves meals to 28 states via overnight delivery.

Freshly uses FedEx to deliver its meals, which allows it to cut down on its overhead because it does not need to build local delivery networks in every state, and FedEx is already a reliable brand that many customers know, trust and have experience with.