Canadian meal kit company Oatbox has raised CAD 1.55 million ($1.17 million) in seed funding, allowing the firm to strengthen its position in the breakfast market.
The funding will go towards reinforcing the company’s marketing efforts, accelerating growth, pursuing new product research and development and buying new equipment to increase production capacity.
Delivering breakfast products to its subscribers across North America, Oatbox hopes the new investors will be able to guide the business to success.
CEO and co-founder Marc-Antoine Bovet is optimistic about the future, stating: “This major investment will allow Oatbox to remain at the forefront of breakfast trends and to offer its customers more products adapted to the their lifestyle.
“By the end of 2017, we plan to significantly increase our active subscriber base in North America, and everything is now in place to achieve this objective.”
Established in 2014 in Montreal, Oatbox delivers two new granola mixes and breakfast cereal bars to its customers’ doors montly via a subscription model.
CFO and co-founder Pierre-Luc Laparé said: “Our investors bring us much more than monetary support – we now benefit from the expertise of a group of mentors with complementary skills who guide us to ensure Oatbox’s success. This is a significant agreement that aims to improve the competitiveness of our company in the breakfast market.”
The investment comes at a strong time for the meal delivery industry, particularly in North America.
Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow and tennis star Serena Williams were among the investors in Daily Harvest – the US company delivering frozen smoothies and overnight oats to consumers – earlier this month.
That followed significant investments from both Unilever and Campbell’s in two US meal delivery services less than two weeks apart.
Campbell’s invested $10 million in meal kit upstart Chef’d, while Unilever was the lead investor in organic meal kit company Sun Basket. California-based Sun Basket grew sales by 1,300% in 2016 and has added $124 million in new annual revenue run rate since last September alone, reflecting the high growth potential in the convenient meal kit category.
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