Home Chef Secures $40 Million in Series B Funding from L Catterton

Meal Kit Delivery Service to Expand with New Round of Funding

News provided by

Sep 29, 2016, 04:06 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Home Chef, a Chicago-based meal kit delivery service, announced it has secured $40 million in Series B capital through an investment led by L Catterton, the largest consumer-focused private equity firm in the world. This funding will allow Home Chef to sustain its rapid growth in the $1.5 billion US meal kit industry.

Home Chef has grown its shipment volume by over 150x since the beginning of last year, and is now delivering more than 1.5 million meals per month to over 97 percent of the country. Supporting this growth and dramatic expansion, the Home Chef team now includes more than 600 employees. The company's diverse menu of familiar, easy to prepare recipes has catapulted Home Chef's success, allowing Home Chef to become one of the largest brands in an increasingly popular category.

"In today's fast-paced world, demanding schedules get in the way of prioritizing what we are feeding our families and ourselves," said Pat Vihtelic, Founder and CEO of Home Chef. "At Home Chef we strive to provide great meals, the most variety, and superior flexibility at an affordable price to accommodate our customers' busy lives. As a result, we are experiencing tremendous growth and this round of investment will enable us to achieve our growth goals."

Home Chef recently announced the opening of a new distribution facility near Atlanta, Georgia, which combined with its operations in Los Angeles and Chicago, provides nationwide distribution. The company also recently began piloting meal plans targeted at families of up to five that feature lower cost, family-friendly recipes.

"We are impressed by Home Chef's rapid expansion and growth, demonstrating their ability to capture an increasing share of this exciting category," said Michael Farello, Managing Partner of L Catterton Growth Fund. "Home Chef's ability to provide consumers a wide variety of home-cooked favorites—at prices that are often lower than the cost of separately purchased ingredients—is a clear recipe for success."

The Home Chef culinary team innovates a new menu that includes 10 dinners every week. Home Chef also offers customers the opportunity to fully customize their weekly delivery, selecting any combination of dinner options plus add-on items such as breakfasts, smoothies and fruit baskets. Once an order is placed, customers receive fresh pre-portioned ingredients, along with clear step-by-step instructions, all delivered straight to their doors weekly.

Pricing and Availability:
Home Chef enables customers of all cooking abilities to prepare meals for only $9.95 per serving, unless otherwise specified. Home Chef family plans offer reduced per serving pricing beginning at $8.33 per serving. Shipping is free for orders over $45.

The Home Chef service ships to over 97 percent of the U.S. population.

About Home Chef
Home Chef is a meal kit delivery service with fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes available nationwide. Home Chef offers 10 dinners along with a breakfast, smoothie, and fruit basket that can be selected from a new menu every week. Home Chef's step-by-step instructions allow customers to create delicious home-cooked meals in approximately 30 minutes. Home Chef is headquartered in Chicago with facilities near Los Angeles and Atlanta. For more information on Home Chef, visit https://www.homechef.com/ or follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

About L Catterton
L Catterton, formed in 2016 through the partnership of Catterton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault, is the largest consumer-focused private equity firm in the world, operating multiple funds out of seventeen offices across five continents. Since its founding in 1989, Catterton has leveraged its category insight, strategic and operating skills, and network of industry contacts to establish one of the strongest private equity investment track records in the middle market. L Catterton builds on this heritage and the strong track record of LVMH and Groupe Arnault's existing European and Asian private equity and real estate operations, conducted under the L Capital and L Real Estate franchises. L Catterton invests in all major consumer segments, including: Food and Beverage, Retail and Restaurants, Beauty and Wellness, Fashion and Accessories, Consumer Products and Services, Consumer Health, and Media and Marketing Services, as well as real estate projects anchored by luxury retail. L Catterton's investments include: Hopdoddy, PIADA Italian Street Food, Mendocino Farms, CHOPT Creative Salad Company, Bruxie, Protein Bar, Snap Kitchen, Peloton, Restoration Hardware, CorePower Yoga, Sweaty Betty, Outback Steakhouse, Plum Organics, Noodles & Company, Vroom, Frederic Fekkai, PIRCH, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Wellness pet food, Nature's Variety pet food, Kettle Foods, Odwalla, P.F. Chang's, Ba&sh, Sandro & Maje, CellularLine, Vicini / Zanotti, Cigierre, Gant, Nutrition and Sante, Pepe Jeans & Hackett, 2XU, Charles & Keith, Marubi, Bateel, Sasseur, Emperor Watch and Jewelry, Miami Design District and G6 in Ginza - Tokyo, to name a few. More information about L Catterton can be found at lcatterton.com.

All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

Media Contact
Chenisha Sangha
FortyThree, Inc.
831-401-3175
[email protected]

SOURCE Home Chef