Sun Basket raises $57.8m in move to boost meal kit offering

US meal kit company Sun Basket has secured $57.8 million in funding following a series D investment of $42.8 million led by August Capital and $15 million in debt financing from Trinity Capital Investment.

Sun Basket said it will now have the capacity to build a $1 billion revenue business. The company offers consumers meal kits delivered to their door weekly, consisting of organic and non-GMO ingredients alongside an easy-to-prepare recipe.

It said the funding will be used to build a food tech company that provides customers more choice and personalises their meals by leveraging their transaction data, dietary needs, and preferences.

Along with expanding its offerings focused on personalised nutrition through food, with the introduction of vegan, Mediterranean, and pescatarian menu offerings, the meal kit innovator is also launching new, larger distribution centres on the east coast of the US and in the Midwest.

Last year, Unilever was a lead investor in a $9.2 million funding round in Sun Basket. Olivier Garel, head of Unilever’s investment arm, Unilever Ventures, said he was impressed by the company’s “extremely fast growth and category-leading customer retention rates”. 

Sun Basket said that its direct-to-consumer service aimed at organic and clean eating is allowing it to scale rapidly. It added that its ability to reach 98% of the continental US with three distribution centres is developing a “fundamentally more capital efficient, structurally superior margin model vis-à-vis the traditional grocery model”.

Sun Basket CEO Adam Zbar

Adam Zbar, CEO and co-founder of Sun Basket, said: “Over the past year, Sun Basket has grown immensely in customers served, products offered, team size, and overall sales. As we scale the business in 2018, we are excited to have August Capital on board, given its track record of helping numerous innovative companies grow while maintaining strong unit economics and great product quality.”

With the investment in Sun Basket, Tripp Jones, general partner of August Capital, has joined the company’s board of directors.

“Sun Basket has achieved incredible growth and industry-leading unit economics in just a few years since launch,” he said. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sun Basket in its next phase as the company continues to scale rapidly and build out its healthy personal choice platform, which has the power to disrupt the $650 billion grocery market by providing consumers a healthier, easier, and more personal way to cook and eat delicious food.”

The round also included Sapphire Ventures, Accolade Partners, Founders Circle, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Vulcan Capital, Relevance Capital, Unilever Ventures, and Correlation Ventures.

The announcement follows a series of high-profile investments in meal kit brands last year: Albertsons bought Plated, Campbell’s invested $10 million Chef’d and Nestlé acquired a minority stake in Freshly.