Healthy snack startup raises seed money to get people off junk food

Image credit: BoxGreen.

Healthy snack delivery startup BoxGreen has raised a seed round worth US$335,000, it announced today. The funding was co-led by Expara Ventures and 500 Startups, and was joined by an undisclosed angel investor.

BoxGreen was founded in late 2014 and launched in May 2015. It offers customers a box of original healthy snacks on a subscription basis, similar to US-based startup Nature Box. The idea is to get people to be more careful about what they eat during the day, especially when they’re stuck at the office and the munchies set in.

The idea is to get people to be more careful about what they eat during the day.

The menu includes over 30 nutritionist-­approved options in sealed one-person packs. There are things like granola, dried fruits, and assorted nuts with funky names like MacRitchie Midnight and Banana Pecan Crumble.

The startup says that it has delivered over 75,000 snack packs to a customer base of over 2,000 members and grown its revenue tenfold year-on-year since launch. However, it doesn’t disclose the number of monthly active users.

Co-founder Walter Oh tells Tech in Asia the company had been growing organically and cashflow “looked good” last year. But then the team met Expara Ventures and 500 Startups and hit it off. “We all felt it was a great time to use the additional capital to capture more market share in Asia and get our snacks into more hands. So we went in and raised the round,” he says.

The BoxGreen team. Photo credit: BoxGreen.

Walter says that both Expara and 500 Startups believe in the health food space and the overall healthier living trend. “Aside from the ongoing investment of on-demand food delivery startups, the investors believe in changing the fundamentals of food (down to the ingredients) and also in the direct-to-consumer model. We think they are aligned with our vision,” he adds.

Better living

BoxGreen will use the funding to bulk up its team, especially in the areas of food and innovation, customer service, and marketing/sales. It wants to keep adding to its catalog of snacks and hopes that the community that’s forming around healthy snacking will result in more subscribers.

The startup also plans to launch in Malaysia soon, and other territories in the region will follow. “Inventory management and supply chain remain the biggest hurdles to get our snacks out but thankfully we are partnered with an experienced snack manufacturer, with decades of snack manufacturing expertise to enable us to scale,” Walter says, without naming the manufacturer in question.

The subscription model has served the company well so far.

BoxGreen has been following the subscription model since launch, and it’s served the company well so far. “[It’s] a great way to build a meaningful relationship with our customers, coupled with our ability to create snacks based on the feedback we receive through our site,” Walter says.