TheVeganKind: U.K.’s Largest Vegan Online Retailer & Subscription Platform Raises US$4.8M Seed

TheVeganKind raised £3.5M (approx. US$4.8M) in its latest Series A funding round that will help the company further upscale its retail business as well as facilitate better plant-based shopping experiences for their consumers.

Literacy Capital, a closed-end investment firm looking to support small businesses, funded the U.K.-based TheVeganKind(TVK) in its latest series A round.

TheVeganKind started out as a subscription delivery box service back in 2013, founded by wife-husband duo Karris and Scott McCulloch in an effort to address the challenges consumers face when looking for vegan options.

In 2016, the company expanded to being an online vegan retail platform. Today TheVeganKind attracts more than 200,000 monthly visits to the website and through their business, aims to provide easy access to consumers in maintaining a vegan lifestyle by offering a wide range of over 6,000 quality plant-based products that includes more than 200 cheeses, with the company even claiming to have the biggest vegan fridge in the world.

In a press release seen by Green Queen, Scott said that the team is excited to receive support from Literacy Capital and a “value-aligned fund which works with an added charitable mission.”

Literacy Capital pledges a yearly donation that is equivalent to 0.9% of the firm’s net assets to further the education of children in the country.

Speaking about their next steps, the founders said: “While we have moved mountains in the last 7 years, helping take veganism mainstream, this raise will allow us to ramp up considerably, investing in our people, inventory, infrastructure, marketing, and more. At TheVeganKind we all know that the world needs more people to go vegan or plant based, and we want to show them just how easy it can be. We have lots of exciting developments in the works such as TVK Health, and hundreds of new brands and products waiting to be listed.”

This raise will allow us to ramp up considerably, investing in our people, inventory, infrastructure, marketing, and more. At TheVeganKind we all know that the world needs more people to go vegan or plant-based, and we want to show them just how easy it can be

Karris and Scott McCulloch, founders of TheVeganKind

CIO of Literacy Capital, Richard Pindar, said: “The tailwinds in the sector, as well as the health, welfare and environmental benefits that TVK is providing, are really encouraging. The aims and objectives of the founders resonate really well with our own charitable and business objectives. We look forward to assisting the team and helping them to expand TVK even further”.

The raise was supported by PwC Raise|Ventures, a firm that backs early-stage companies. Company head Glen Waters said that the team found TheVeganKind’s story exceptional even though they were bootstrapped until March of last year. “As a team, they have continued to demonstrate how capable they are, as they look to take the business to that next level. We look forward to watching them scale and view Literacy Capital as a fantastic and experienced growth partner to help them achieve their ambitions”.

Apart from the funding news, recently, Hong Kong-based Green Monday expanded into British retail channels by listing OmniPork, the vegan pork product developed under the food tech arm OmniFoods, on TheVeganKind, providing U.K.’s consumers plant-based pork mince created out of non-GMO soybeans, peas, rice and shiitake mushrooms with every 100gm serving carrying 12 gms protein

Additionally, TheVeganKind joined forces with THIS to unveil its first own 100% plant-based ready-to-eat food brand Love Plants! that will feature THIS Isn’t Chicken, a hyper-realistic chicken alternative.

TheVeganKind also received funding from Veg Capital, a vegan investment fund founded by vegan entrepreneur and co-founder of the plant-based campaign Veganuary, Matthew Glover.

Lead image courtesy of TheVeganKind.