Food Startup Hungryroot Scores $7.7M Series A

Founded in 2015, healthy meal kit food startup Hungryroot is going after Big Food in a big way. The startup is looking to innovate the comfort food market by making guilty pleasures guilt-free. Given the latest round of funding, it looks like investors can smell what Hungryroot is cooking.

Just recently, Hungryroot raised another $7.7 million in its ongoing Series A venture capital funding round led by some hungry investors. To date, the company has raised some $13.5 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Crosslink Capital, among others.

Ben McKean, cofounder and CEO of Hungryroot, was quoted by Fortune as saying: “These big packaged-goods companies are over 100 years old, and they are very slow-moving. We are able to push the limit in terms of being more innovative because the risk of failure is lower.”

Hungryroot offers consumers plant-based and other alternative ingredients — like almond chickpea cookie dough or carrot noodles — in their meal kits that allow them to make healthy versions of comfort foods. In the beginning, Hungryroot sold its products exclusively through its website.

To stay ahead of Big Food, Hungryroot tracks consumer behavior on its website and uses data analytics to learn which of its products are selling, which aren’t and potentially why.

“We may believe people will love a certain product,” McKean reportedly said. “But if no one clicks through it, we know something’s wrong — maybe it’s the name, maybe it’s the nutrition or maybe it’s even the concept.”

Fast forward to today, the startup has deals to sell its items via FreshDirect, AmazonFresh and at select Whole Foods locations, said Fortune. Combined, Hungryroot reportedly sells 1 million items per year.

Hungryroot reportedly plans to use the recent investment money to hire more employees and increase spending on marketing and promotion. Additionally, said Fortune, the startup company has plans to launch a soup line in the coming months. Eat up.