Meal planning and shopping platform Lollipop secures £5m in seed round

Our client Lollipop, the smart personal shopping assistant, has raised £5 million in a new seed round led by Octopus Ventures.

The funding will allow the company to build out the product (currently in beta) across the whole journey of feeding the family including meal planning, shopping and cooking.

Lollipop’s product works by allowing shoppers to add recipes, build custom meals and even import external recipes to their baskets in just a few seconds. Personalised intelligent ‘playlists’ can also be created so remaining household essentials can be added to the basket in an instant.

The company has partnered up with a range of brands including BBC Good Food and Sainsbury‘s for the recipes.

According to the startup, this is the first time that a holistic approach has been taken to grocery shopping with support at every stage from providing meal inspiration, to achieving health goals, and supporting in the kitchen.

Recipe recommendations are tailored based on users’ dietary and lifestyle preferences in-order to personalise the shopping experience for busy families. The company’s partnership with Sainsbury’s ensures dependable delivery covering 98% of the UK with a range of over 30,000 high quality items at a low cost.

“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,” Lollipop founder Tom Foster-Carter said.

“Tracking your family’s nutritional intake and what’s left to use up in your cupboards should be as effortless as tracking your money on Monzo. That’s what we’re building at Lollipop.”

“I’ve personally spoken to dozens of parents lumped with the shopping and cooking for their households and it was heart-wrenching hearing how lonely they found the experience and how many wished they had some help. This is why community was core to our product from the outset.

“We’re so lucky to have an amazing group of Lollipop Pioneers who support each other and provide us with invaluable feedback every day (along with mouth-watering photos of what they’ve just cooked!).”

Sainsbury’s head of digital strategy Mathew Roberts added: “We are pleased to partner with Lollipop in this new venture.

“They share our commitment to help everyone have access to great value, healthy food and we are fully behind everything they are doing to support families across the UK.

“Lollipop uses technology in an innovative way and we look forward to working together to bring great value, innovative food to more customers.”