Gardeners know that homegrown produce rarely look as perfect as what’s sold at Fairway, Citarella or even Whole Foods. Past successful food delivery crowdfunding campaigns like Foodist, Ooooby Grit Grocery have focused on delivering exceptional local, artisan foods… but what to do about the odd-shaped produce? The wonky tomatoes, apples and carrots still taste great and often have character to boot. Often the odd shaped tomatoes with big snozzes or slightly imperfect asparagus get thrown away… enter Oddbox with a plan to fight toothsome food from being needlessly wasted. Oddbox Co-founders Emilie Vanpoperinghe and Deepak Ravindran are seeking a way to profit from “wonky” and surplus produce with a box delivery system for homes and offices and have linked with Seedrs to make their plan come to fruition, literally.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Big Harvest @Seedrs …@OddboxLDN has partnered with 26+ local growers, offering customers cost-effective option aiming to support a more sustainable food system. #foodwaste #crowdfunding ” quote=”Big Harvest @Seedrs ..@OddboxLDN has partnered with over 26 local growers, offering customers cost-effective option aiming to support a more sustainable food system. #foodwaste #crowdfunding “]
Pre-valued at £1,560,171, Oddbox seeks to harvest £350,004 for 18.32% equity during its Seedrs campaign. Over £316,960, more than 90% of the initial goal, has been reaped from 334+ investors for the Oddbox’ mission in just over a week, with 47+ days remaining on the campaign.
“We fight food waste on farms by sourcing slightly imperfect but just as delicious produce for a fair price directly from farms, deliver them to customers for 30% cheaper than similar box services, and donate up to 10% of our produce to charities that fight food poverty,” indicated Oddbox via its Seedrs campaign. “We deliver our fruit and veg boxes to homes in South London, and our fruit only boxes to offices in Central London.”
[clickToTweet tweet=”Tackling #foodwaste @OddboxLDN @Seedrs London #wonkyveg box delivering over 25,000 delicious boxes to South London ” quote=”Tackling #foodwaste @OddboxLDN @Seedrs London #wonkyveg box delivering over 25,000 delicious boxes to South London “]
Oddbox has partnered with and directly collect from over 26 local growers and offers its customers a cost-effective option aiming to support a more sustainable food system. The startup has reportedly sold 25K boxes to thousands of home customers across South London and nearly 4K boxes to offices, posting a monthly revenue run rate of c. £50,000 in March this year.
“We think an Oddbox delivery is a great way for people to not only feel good by eating fresh produce for an affordable price, but also an opportunity to do good by directly contributing to reducing food waste on farms and indirectly tackling food poverty,” added the UK startup. “We rescue fruit and vegetables that are fresh and perfectly good quality, but are either out of specification, or surplus to requirements. We offer our customers fresh, local and seasonal produce delivered to their home or office for cheaper. We also minimise plastic and re-use or recycle our packaging.”
Funds raised from the campaign will aid Oddbox to expand to the rest of London through marketing, key hires, increased operational capacity and improved tech platform. Oddbox has plans to geo-target its hyper-local marketing campaigns as well as engage influencers to drive awareness and sign-ups, recruit new team members (expert buyer, customer support, operations, marketing and tech), upgrade its tech platform and will invest in equipment to improve the efficiency of its packing operations in the company’s new warehouse. Oddbox currently has an outstanding directors loan for £25,000. The startup loan notes that the loan is interest free and will only be repaid once the company is profitable.
Investor perks offered on the campaign range from 50% off an investor’s first box and a special Oddbox tote bag for £20 to 25% off Oddboxes for in investor’s first 6 months and a visit to one of Oddbox’s partner farms for £5,000+.
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