People’s Champion finalist 2018: Feedr

Start-up name: Feedr
Founders: Riya Grover and Lyz Swanton
Started in: 2016
Based in: London
Business description: Online marketplace connecting offices to healthy meals from artisan vendors in London

Shortlisted category:

Women in Business Award

The Feedr story:

It can be easy for healthy lifestyles to go out of the window while at work; whether it’s grabbing a lunch meal deal from the local supermarket, chowing down on fast food, or perhaps scrapping your lunch break altogether because you’re too busy. And this is especially common if your office doesn’t have canteen or food options on offer.

Enter Feedr.

On a mission to redefine the workplace food landscape, Feedr connects offices to fresh, healthy meals from over 80 of London’s best artisan vendors.

The brainchild of founding duo Riya Grover and Lyz Swanton, Feedr has built what Grover and Swanton neatly refer to as a ‘cloud canteen’; Netflix-style personalised menus available online for employees to pick and choose their meals each day and have them delivered direct.

Flexibile subsidation options are available for companies to offer Feedr as a work perk which means employees can benefit from healthier, more affordable lunches without the sacrifice.

Two years since launch and a number of big brands have got behind the company – AirBnb, PWC, DHL, and Etsy are among 350 companies that Feedr has sold meals to and/or built wellbeing programmes for.

The cloud canteen service also benefits the vendors it works with, such as the Detox Kitchen, Farmstand, and Maple & Fitz, by increasing sales volumes and utilising spare kitchen capacity during quiet times to decrease production costs.

With £2.1m investment from high-profile investors, including those behind Transferwise, LOVEFiLM, and Shazam, Grover and Swanton have already grown the business by 300% in the last year and are on target to serve 500,000 meals in the capital by the end of the year.

This growth ascent has also enabled the start-up to pursue a social conscious focus; through its partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation, Feedr matches each meal purchased on its platform with a nutritious meal for a school child in India.

Why Feedr made our shortlist:

Consumer habits are changing and we have come to expect services and solutions that are tailored to our wants and needs. As Lyz and Swanton explain; “We’ve come to expect that our small worlds are increasingly tailored to our wants and needs. We rely on Netflix to suggest our media binges and Amazon to recommend the things we buy – so why should the way we eat be any different?”

As finalists for our Women in Business Award, Lyz and Swanton have developed an offering which provides benefits to independent vendors while enabling companies to provide better health and wellbeing for their employees.

Where to find out more about Feedr:

Website: teamfeedr.com
Twitter: @teamfeedr