What the business is
London marketplace for home chefs' frozen meals, handling collection, storage and dispatch
The bet
A marketplace where chefs only cook pre-prepared bulk meals, with HomeCooks handling collection, freezing and dispatch, can be profitable where restaurants are not
Starting capital
£2.5 million from institutional investors including Speedinvest, Dutch Founders Fund, Ventures Together and Atomico, plus a Seedrs crowdfunding target of £1.37M
How it started
After the UK stay-at-home order on 23 March 2020, a Facebook group let chefs post menus and users order via comments. By 22 April 2020 it had over 500 members and over 100 meals sold; it later had 8,172 members. Angels, including Deliveroo's employee number two Leonard Picardo, gave pre-seed money.
What happened
Led by serial entrepreneur Joshua Magidson, whose eatstudent.co.uk was acquired by Just Eat, HomeCooks built technology covering collection, freezing, storage and dispatch for partner chefs, and offered 200+ meals. It said it served about 60,000 meals to some 7,000 customers in 2023, up 600% on the year before, with 70% monthly growth from August to October.
How it ended up
In December 2023 it announced a seed led by Speedinvest, with Dutch Founders Fund, Ventures Together and Atomico, and a Seedrs campaign targeting £1.37M, 95% complete with 15 days left. Customer and growth figures were the company's own.
What has to be true
Lockdown cut off chefs and individuals who depended on in-person interactions
A Facebook group proved demand cheaply, reaching 500 members in two weeks
Chefs cooking only pre-prepared bulk meals avoid the overheads that sink restaurants
Angel investors backed the early traction, then Speedinvest and others funded the marketplace
What can be applied
A marketplace that starts as a free group tests demand before building anything; the later work is replacing the manual parts with operations that make the chefs' economics work.
Aftermath
As of 2023-12-05, HomeCooks had £2.5M of institutional seed funding, a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign 95% complete, 200+ meals on offer and self-reported growth of 600% year on year.
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