Farmdrop, the online marketplace that lets people buy quality, fresh food direct from local farmers and producers, has secured £3m investment in its latest round of funding led by Atomico, the investment company founded by Niklas Zennström.
Ex-Morgan Stanley stockbroker Ben Pugh, 37, launched Farmdrop with a mission to take on the supermarkets and fix the food chain by closing the gap between buyer and producer. Its unique, closed-loop "click-to-harvest" technology makes it easy for consumers to buy the freshest food direct from local farms, whilst enabling producers to manage supply better, reduce food wastage and receive a much better financial return - on average 75 per cent of revenue compared to 40 per cent from supermarkets.
The Bermondsey-based business has grown its customer base by over 230 per cent year on year since it launched in 2014 after raising a record £750,000 investment on crowd-funding platform, CrowdCube. The company has a growing number of influential foodie fans including TV chefs Gizzi Erskine and Thomasina Miers.
Atomico was founded in 2006 with a mission to invest in innovative technology companies that are on the way to becoming category leaders. It has previously invested in the likes of Supercell, Klarna and Climate Corporation.
This investment includes funding from a consortium of investors including JamJar Investments, run by the three Innocent entrepreneurs, Richard Reed, Jon Wright and Adam Balon.
JamJar backs consumer businesses with transformational ideas and includes start-ups Graze, Deliveroo and Tails.com in its portfolio.
Further backing was received from Jonathan Goodwin, co-founder of Lepe Partners and Founders Forum, Jason Goodman, CEO and founder of Albion, as well as previous angel investors Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla and Quentin Griffiths, co-founder of ACHICA and ASOS.
Ben Pugh, founder of Farmdrop, comments: "The food industry in this country is completely broken with too much power belonging to a selected few who treat farmers and producers badly, whilst offering consumers chemically-preserved, tasteless food. Farmdrop is on mission to fix the food chain by making it easy to buy the best food from the best local producers. We believe everyone deserves a more delicious world and this investment will help us continue to improve the product and spread the word about the Farmdrop revolution."
Niklas Zennström, Founding Partner and CEO of Atomico, comments: "Farmdrop is demonstrating huge ambition by disrupting the established food chain and addressing the growing concerns many of us have about the quality and provenance of our food."
"We've been extremely impressed with the team and their growth so far so we're proud to become an investor. We're especially pleased to be joining their existing bench of founder-funders, and look forward to providing our own unique value to Ben and his team as they begin to scale the business."
Katie Leviten, Investment Manager at JamJar, comments: "Farmdrop taps into two key consumer grocery trends: fresher and sourced locally. Farmdrop is a win-win, the shopper and their family get delicious fresh food and the farmers are fairly rewarded which makes the model a sustainable improvement to the current status quo."
