The bowls, which can launch this month, depend on the identical expertise that made its fast-growing natural smoothies successful – freeze drying – to create fruit and vegetable blends that turns into a nutritious, well-balanced full meal in minutes with the straightforward addition of water.
However that’s the place the similarities cease, stated Lucy Greeves, the corporate’s vp of brand name. She defined to FoodNavigator-USA that the bowls are “not like soups, they usually’re not sizzling smoothies.” Relatively, they’ll have layers of textures, a steadiness of carbs, protein, wholesome fat and nutritional vitamins and be accessible initially in six flavors which might be interesting for lunch.
“The concept is that so long as you’ll be able to boil water or use a microwave, you’ll be able to have a very tasty, filling, plant-based lunch in below 10 minutes with zero prep, apart from a fast stir,” Greeves stated.
She added that the inspiration for the bowls got here from the model’s ethos of making “moments of the day” through which People can simply match within the fruit and veggies that many individuals are lacking.
“We began with the smoothies, which is the right strategy to get extra fruit and veggies into your morning routine. After which final 12 months we launched the gumdrops, which is slightly deal with for these moments when your candy tooth kicks in otherwise you want slightly vitality enhance” however need one thing that’s wholesome, she stated.
Lunch is the following pure extension for the model, which proved customers are hungry not only for extra produce, but in addition handy choices to assist them meet USDA’s suggestion for 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day, as illustrated by its 500% year-over-year because it launched three years in the past.
$10m fundraise helps convey bowls to the desk
Impressed by the corporate’s preliminary success and plans for future development, a fleet of latest and present traders have come collectively to assist get the bowls on tables (or desks), and take Kencko to the following degree by way of a $10m sequence A fundraise introduced final week.
Led by current investor Siddhi Capital and stuffed out with further contributions from Subsequent View Ventures, Riverside Ventures, Silas Capital, Cheyenne Ventures, Shilling Capital, Indico Capital, Mission Level, Collect Ventures, Nakhla Ventures and Nextblue Venutres, this spherical brings the model’s complete funding to $13.5m.
Along with supporting the launch of the bowls, the fundraise additionally will assist the DTC firm enhance its buyer supply and optimize delivery – each for a greater client expertise and decreased environmental impression, firm CFO Mike Erickson instructed FoodNavigator-USA.
“We try to be increasingly native to our prospects in order that we are able to reduce down on delivery emissions, which we already carbon compensate, however its higher to not have carbon within the first place,” particularly as an authorized B-corp devoted to sustainability, he stated.
To this finish, the corporate is working with companions within the US to supply and fill orders, which additionally will improve the enterprise’ velocity to market and enhance buyer relations, he stated.
The funds additionally will assist the corporate to construct out its group to higher assist its growth in order that high quality and client experiences don’t endure because the enterprise scales.
“Like most quick rising startups, our headcount hiring has lagged the expansion of the enterprise. So though we have now invested on this, we have to actually right-size the group to mee tout wants right now,” Erickson stated.
He added that as a food-tech firm, Kencko is on the lookout for “good engineers, builders, registered dietitians, customer support and advertising. Actually throughout the board.”
Between constructing out its employees, manufacturing and choices, Greeves says probably the most thrilling a part of the fundraise is the flexibility to “simply attain extra folks at extra moments of the day” and assist People meet the USDA really helpful consumption of fruit and veggies.