With a deep-frozen alternative to the well-known chilled meal boxes, Ghent-based startup Mealhero wants to conquer more European countries in addition to Belgium and the Netherlands. New investors are injecting 2.5 million euros into the company.
“Personal chef experience”
Mealhero provides fresh frozen ingredients that consumers can easily prepare at home in an intelligent steamer. The concept guarantees ‘hands-free’ cooking: the healthy meal is ready within 25 minutes. The company offers a choice menu of 30 dishes and 70 individual ingredients to put together a meal yourself. The concept is aimed at young families who want to eat tasty and healthy meals, but who want to spend their time optimally.
The corona crisis caused an acceleration in growth, but also put enormous pressure on the operational chain, says CEO Jeroen Spitaels, who strongly believes in the advantages of the Mealhero concept: “You often see that a traditional food box only solves a small part of the cooking problem. In addition, you regularly see the problems of limited flexibility or personalisation. It is precisely because we are so close to the customer with our platform that we can respond to their wishes in order to provide them with a personal chef experience”.
In just two years, Mealhero has grown to become one of the top three foodboxes in Belgium, the team has grown from 3 to 30 people and the number of customers from 1 to several thousands. Now it’s time for a new step: the startup wants to conquer additional countries in Europe. Growth capital comes from a few new investors: the Jan Haspeslagh family of frozen food company Ardo, Zhong Xu and Jan Hollez of delivery software specialist Deliverect, and the investors behind restaurant chain Bavet. Together they put 2.5 million euros on the table.
