Lollipop, an online food shopping assistant, has raised £5m in a seed round led by Octopus Ventures.
Lollipop will use the capital to continue developing its platform, which lets online food shoppers plan meals and automatically add the necessary ingredients to baskets.
The London-headquartered startup has partnered with British supermarket Sainsbury’s. Its platform, which is still in beta mode, also lets users add recipes, build custom meals, import external recipes and provides recipe recommendations based on dietary and lifestyle requirements.
The startup is targeting busy families that don’t have the time to meal plan.
Lollipop was co-founded in 2020 by Chris Parsons and Tom Foster-Carter, who was previously the COO of Monzo and the co-founder of Curve. Lollipop launched beta testing in July last year for selected users.
“Getting the shop done and the family fed is already tough. As living costs rise, it is only getting harder for overwhelmed parents trying to eat healthily, live sustainably and stick to a budget,” said Foster-Carter, CEO of Lollipop.
Additional investment in the seed round came from Maki VC, Anterra Capital and Plug and Play. Previous investors JamJar and Speedinvest also provided capital.
Plug and Play’s investment comes after its UK launch last month, partnering with Jaguar Land Rover and BT Group.
“We are pleased to partner with Lollipop in this new venture. Lollipop uses technology in an innovative way and we look forward to working together to bring great value, innovative food to more customers,” said Matthew Roberts, head of digital strategy at Sainsbury’s.
Lollipop’s seed round follows its pre-seed in December 2020. The startup has recently relocated to a warehouse space in London Bridge and aims to double its team by the end of the year.
“We’re seeing more and more ways to shop for groceries, from meal kits to one-hour delivery offerings, yet 80% of households spend over an hour a week meal-planning and online grocery shopping,” said Matt Chandler, Investor at Octopus Ventures.
“There’s a huge gap for a mass-market idea that makes it easier for households to choose and shop for delicious meals without limiting their choice.”
