'Ethical' delivery business Foodstuff to grow UK presence following £1m seed round

The money will enable Foodstuff, which currently operates in six cities across England and Scotland, to accelerate its expansion into 10 new locations, as well as turbo-charging the future development of its recently-released mobile app.

Foodstuff was founded in 2020 and positions itself as offering 'food delivery with a conscience' that partners exclusively with 'tried and tasted independent local restaurants'. Each order is delivered via 100% emission-free vehicles, by drivers that are 'paid a fair wage for a real job'.

“We're in a game-changing moment for Foodstuff and this funding gives us the firepower to scale-up and connect loads more foodies, with even more high quality independent restaurants,” says Toby Savill, co-founder and CEO at Foodstuff.

Foodstuff released its app to existing customers back in November, shortly prior to the closing of its seed round, and since then has seen the average monthly growth rate of orders jump 36%.

Going forward, the company anticipates that the app will have a significant positive contribution to customer growth and engagement with the brand as it expands.

“We managed to reach tens of thousands of repeat customers without a mobile app,” says James Perry, co-founder and CPO.

“After months of website-only ordering we're very happy to serve our loyal customers with an easy-to-use and engaging mobile experience. Since launching the app in mid-November, we’ve already had over 20,000 total downloads.”

The seed round was led by Base Investments UK with participation from - among others - hospitality investor Charlie McVeigh, who also joins the board as non-executive chair.

“I am very proud to be joining Foodstuff’s dynamic team, led by Toby and James,” says McVeigh.

“It’s abundantly clear that there is a community of independent restaurants and aspirational foodies out there who do not feel represented by the delivery giants.

“Foodstuff is already demonstrating in six UK cities that it can offer an ethical, curated, eco-friendly alternative and the accelerating viral success of each successive city launch confirms there is a market out there looking for something new.”

Foodstuff is currently operational in Cambridge, Bristol, Bath, Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh.