Why we invested in Feed.
For those who are not familiar with this brand, Feed. designs nutritionally perfect meals in a format that suits active people (that’s to say ready-to-drink and ready-to-eat meals).
I must admit: I was very confused when I first heard about it. In a country where food and cooking is so important, how could we possibly swap our beloved cheese and red meat for powder food or snacks? Soylent might be popular in Silicon Valley but there was little chance that we could replicate the success here in France.
And yet, we announced last month that we invested in Feed. — alongside great business angels, and I am super excited to be on board. As most of you may feel the way I did, I’d like to explain to you why I totally changed my mind and why exactly we see so much potential for this company
The product is great
When you invest in food, the first question you should ask yourself is: “are the products good?”. In Feed.’s case, there are at least five reasons to answer “Yes!”.
Let’s start with the obvious: they taste good. It is surely a very subjective criteria that is hard to evaluate. Within the team, we all have flavors that we love and others that we like less. But objectively, close to 100% of Feed.’s customers have declared that they would buy again the products and 80% of them would recommend them to their friends. All the recipes have been elaborated with real chefs and the team constantly keeps integrating its customers’ feedback to improve them. It sounds worth giving it a try don’t you think?
They are good for your body. Each meal has been elaborated alongside nutritionists whose job is to provide all the nutritional needs required by your body (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, fibers, vitamins, minerals, oligo elements, omega 3…). They only use high-quality natural ingredients such as oatmeal, rice, sarrazin seeds, flax seeds, agave syrup, chickpeas, rapeseed oil, acacia fibers and cocoa powder.
They are good for the planet. Feed. products are gluten free, vegan and all of them will soon be soy free (the new recipes already are). Knowing that the livestock sector produces about 15% of global greenhouse gases (roughly equivalent to all the exhaust emissions of every car, train, ship and aircraft on the planet), skipping our bloody steak from time to time becomes an act of consciousness. And for those who will argue that using disposable bottles might be worse, please be aware that Feed. bottles are 100% PET recyclable and that you can also purchase a 3kg pouch containing the equivalent of 20 meals.
They help you save money. Today, the classic sandwich/soda combo costs more than €8 if you live in Paris, and €15 if you go to any “trendy” restaurants. And I challenge you to prepare a healthy meal at home for less than €5. With Feed., you can buy a full meal from €2.5.
And last but not least, they give you the most valuable asset of all: free time! Think about it: instead of spending your lunch break queuing in the rain to get a cold sandwich, you could go to your gym, go back home and spend time with your family or just stay at your desk and leave earlier to do whatever you want (isn’t that convincing?).
The market is huge
Feed. products are neither made for diet nor for hyper protein regimes. They are just food, or to be accurate they are just healthy, convenient and affordable food. That means that Feed. will not replace all your meals, it is just a new alternative: sometimes you are craving a juicy burger, other times you just want a mix salad, now you can also have a Feed. meal for lunch or dinner. That also means that everyone is a potential customer.
The broken student, the hard worker, the busy parent who juggles between work and kids, the taxi driver who spends his day in his car, the single guy who does not know how to cook, the single girl who does not want to cook (or the other way around), the geek who never leaves his computer, the hiker who leaves for a two day-trail: all of them (and more of them) can be Feed.’s next customers.
You can be not passionnate about food and be a Feed. customer: it is a simple and efficient way to get what your body needs. But you can also be a 100% food lover and still be a Feed. customer. Sometimes, you just do not have the time nor the energy to cook something or to go outside to eat but you still want to have something good: when you are fed up with ordering your food (or at the end of the month, when you cannot afford it anymore), Feed. is your solution. I consider myself a big foodie: I love cooking, trying new restaurants the day they open, and I try to treat myself with healthy food. That does not prevent me from having a Feed. from time to time: when it comes to choose between an overpriced soft sandwich at the airport and a Feed. banana-chocolate bar, or between a 30-minute queue to get a salad and a combo Let’s Ride (indoor cycling) + a bottle of mushroom-flavored Feed. for lunch, my choice is made!
We are not betting on Feed. becoming the only meal that you should be eating, but we think it can become a meal everyone should be having from time to time. Just in France, the average yearly budget for food is € 3,600 per person. Feed. is thus addressing a 230-billion-euro market. And if you want to narrow it down, the fast food market is still a € 17 billion market and ready-to-eat meals market weights € 5 billion. I let you do the math for Europe and beyond.
The vision is forward-looking
Global food security is a main challenge for our planet. We are trying to reach a hunger free world by 2030 (which means feeding 9 billion people) while protecting the planet. By providing a new type of food which is sustainable, healthy and affordable, Feed. could become a solution for the impossible equation of producing enough nutritious food for more people, while using less.
This argument alone was already enough to convince us but Feed. offers even more. In a society where most of us are fortunate enough not to run out of food, Feed. provides us with something we cannot usually buy: t-i-m-e. How you use it is now up to you: work more, exercise, entertain, enjoy your loved ones, read, paint, think, act … Do things that really matter.
As a thesis-driven VC, we believe that entrepreneurs should be the creative minds that are creating patterns for sustainable consumption and we trust them to become the ambassadors of a society that empowers humans to leverage their creativity for personal and collective achievement. If we say that our role is to back these forward-looking founders as they turn their vision into reality, there was no other way then than to invest in Feed.
Want to reach out ? Drop a line to hello@otiumcapital.com
