VENTURA, Calif. — FreshRealm, a leading provider of fresh meals for retailers nationwide, announced today that the company has closed on a $200 million capital raise, led by a premier global cornerstone institutional investor. This latest raise will accelerate the company’s growth strategy within the meal industry. FreshRealm is the only fresh meals provider to deliver a national platform that simplifies how fresh ready to cook, ready to heat and low-prep meal kits are brought to the table. The investment capital will allow FreshRealm to continue to drive the future of the $30 billion1 market opportunity with retail partners.
The sizable raise, which comes at a time of record inflation and economic uncertainty, affirms the capital market’s belief in enduring demand for convenient and fresh meals. Consumers today continue to be time-starved and seek quality meal solutions with retailers vying for more share of stomach with cost effective meal solutions, especially as consumers spend less on dining out. This investment affirms FreshRealm‘s position as the leading innovator in the fresh meals industry.
“We’ve built the most sophisticated platform for fresh meals nationwide in partnership with retailers that represent about 10,000 retail locations across the country and over a million DTC consumers over the last year,” said FreshRealm Founder and CEO, Michael Lippold. “As the retail fresh meals category continues to demonstrate compelling growth, this funding will allow FreshRealm to bolster our existing end-to-end platform that supports elevated private label and branded meal assortments and fresh meals destinations.”
With consumers eating more meals at home and seeking more convenient solutions to bring meals to the table,2 FreshRealm will use this latest $200 million raise to help the organization drive unprecedented growth through key areas of investment, including:
- Increasing National Presence Through Expanded Facilities: Expanding the company’s state-of-the-art operational facilities nationwide to address growing retailer demand for fresh meals, increasing capabilities to deliver over 400 million meals to consumers nationwide.
- Driving Accessibility Through Channel Expansion: Expanding production to offer new and in-demand fresh meals offerings at additional retail channels, including convenience and club stores.
- Growing Meal Innovation Pipeline: Utilizing culinary team expertise and proprietary consumer data to deliver even greater sophistication and customization in meal innovation development for retail customers and end consumers.
- Bolstering Operational Efficiencies: Pursuing continuous improvement to the company’s equipment, facility technology and production capacity to maximize and optimize efficiency within FreshRealm‘s proprietary horizontally integrated operations model.
- Strengthening Supply Chain Surety: Expanding and solidifying the national network of ingredients with key current and new strategic partners to ensure supply chain security, building on the company’s already industry leading service level.
- Investing in Best-in-Class System Technology: Innovating to deliver new technology solutions to drive the transformation necessary to consistently manage the scale and complexity of meals and ingredients, across many customers and channels.
This recent capital raise comes just one year after the company raised $32 million to support its leading role in the category. The organization has expanded facilities, reinforced its strong leadership team of category experts, introduced a new product brand, developed a robust pipeline of fresh meals and new product innovation, and established fortified channels of distribution in a challenging market and volatile supply chain environment.
BTIG, LLC served as sole placement agent to FreshRealm in connection with the offering. Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. served as legal advisor.
About FreshRealm
FreshRealm, a leading Fresh Meals solution provider at retail, partners with retailers to create Fresh Meals destinations that provide vibrant and convenient solutions for a busy and healthier consumer lifestyle.
With a belief that we all Connect Through Meals, FreshRealm‘s team of culinary experts curate a range of inspired meals using the very best ingredients so that consumers can enjoy delicious, Fresh Meals with little to no effort. The company provides an end-to-end Fresh Meals retail solution: from product design, sourcing, commercialization, manufacturing, logistics, through marketing & promotion.
