UK’s One Planet Pizza Raises US$490K To Deliver Its Frozen Vegan Pies To Scandinavia

One Planet Pizza, a vegan frozen pizza startup based in the U.K., has raised £360,000 (US$490,000) in a funding round to fuel its production expansion and plans to enter the Scandinavian market. The company says that the new capital will also go towards creating new products in 2021, as demand for plant-based products continues to grow. 

Norfolk-based One Planet Pizza’s latest £360,000 (US$490,000) funding round exceeded its original £340,000 (US$464,000) target, and saw the participation of plant-based investors such as Veg Capital, the York-based nonprofit investment firm started by Veganuary co-founder Matthew Glover, and Stockholm-based Kale United. Several undisclosed angel investors whose investment marked their first break into the plant-based sector also joined the round. 

The frozen 100% plant-based pizza startup, which was founded in 2016 by father and son team Mike and Joe Hill, says that the funds will be used to triple its existing production capacity, expand its direct-to-consumer platform, and launch new products into the market this year. 

We are looking forward to using the extra resources and bandwidth that this investment brings to expand our range of products and broaden the reach of our pizzas into new markets.

Mike Hill, Co-Founder, One Planet Pizza

So far, the brand offers an entire range of 100% vegan pizzas, from medditeranian roasted veggies to a “cheezeburger” pizza topped with Meatless Farm’s plant-based meats, including some options that are gluten-free too. All their pizzas are topped with Applewood Vegan, the plant-based cheese alternative launched by dairy giant Norseland, and are available via its online website as well as retailers like Whole Foods, The Vegan Kind, Frozenly Vegan and e-commerce major Ocado. 

We are very happy to now join as investors and help take the best plant-based pizza to the global market by distributing their pizzas across all of Scandinavia.

Måns Ullerstam, Founder, Kale United

One Planet Pizza also said that the capital will fuel its international expansion plans, which will see the startup enter the Scandinavian markets for the first time. With the support of strategic investor Kale United, the brand’s line of frozen plant-based pizzas are slated to land in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the coming months. Launching in other European markets like Germany and the Netherlands are also on the cards further down the line. 

“Kale United has been following One Planet Pizza from the start. We are very happy to now join as investors and help take the best plant-based pizza to the global market by distributing their pizzas across all of Scandinavia,” said Måns Ullerstam, founder of Kale United. 

“We are really excited that such a range of investors believe in One Planet Pizza and what it is trying to achieve,” continued the brand’s co-founder Mike Hill. 

“We are looking forward to using the extra resources and bandwidth that this investment brings to expand our range of products and broaden the reach of our pizzas into new markets. The future is indeed plant-based and epic pizzas are our way of making a delicious difference.”

One Planet Pizza’s latest investment round comes shortly after its rebranding as an “ethical challenger” to traditional frozen pizza products, with its products packaged in a 100% recyclable sleeve that is printed with 100% vegetable-derived inks on 85% recycled paper. 

The company says that its ethical strategy is disrupting the US$62 million frozen pizza category within its domestic U.K. market, which has experienced significant growth amidst the coronavirus restaurant closures and lockdown measures. It also stands out as one of the leading 100% plant-based players in the segment striving to meet the fast-growing demand from vegans and flexitarians in the country. 

Other convenient plant-based food businesses in the U.K. have seen surging sales, such as food delivery platform Deliveroo who revealed a whopping 115% increase in the number of vegan food orders amongst British consumers since November 2019. 

All images courtesy of One Planet Pizza.