Summary:
Whisk.com is a grocery shopping technology company that links cooking inspiration to shopper action.
The startup’s initial product is an award-winning shopping list app that seamlessly turns any recipe into a digital shopping list.
Since Whisk’s launch in 2013, the startup has partnered with the UK’s biggest supermarkets and the web’s leading popular recipe publishers. The free app is now available in 10 countries and in 6 languages.
The company has also developed innovations for the broader food industry – recipe publishers, CPG brands and online retailers.
WhiskAds makes the content from hundreds of thousands of recipes connected and transactional.
Additionally, the recently-launched WhiskConnect platform allows brands to make all their online content shoppable. Whether it’s video, display, search or social, WhiskConnect gives brands the much sought-after ability to leverage and monetize their content sources and traffic.
The company is based in Birmingham and currently has a team of 20.
Challenges Faced and the Need for a Solution:
The funding from Midven was key to accelerating Whisk’s traction with leading recipe publishers.
By being able to scale these partnerships, Whisk’s shopping list functionality is now available across more than 300,000 global sites receiving 30 million monthly impressions.
Why Midven?
Whisk founder and CEO Nick Holzherr met Midven’s investment director Duncan Kerr from Birmingham industry events.
Midven’s knowledge and expertise supporting growing companies was a key factor when evaluating funding options. It is important to have an experienced investor who can draw on the experience of other investments to help guide the company.
In 2012, as a young company especially, we wanted an investor who would also be happy to spend quite a lot of time with us and we found that in Midven.
How Midven Helped:
Funding: Midven’s initial investment in Whisk was in June 2012 and Midven also participated in an additional round in January 2013.
Expertise: Midven have been very helpful making internal resources available to us and guiding us through difficult decisions in the legal, commercial and marketing aspects of the business.
Timeliness: The whole investment process took about 3 months.
The Results:
Following funding Whisk.com has grown and expanded in many ways:
- Two employees to twenty.
- Zero publishers to About.com, FoodNetwork, GoodtoKnow and Allrecipes, the world’s largest digital food brand, which receives more than 1 billion annual visits to their 19 local recipe sites.
- No traffic to 30 million impressions per month.
- Zero retailers to 4 major UK supermarkets: ASDA, Tesco, Ocado and Waitrose.
- 1 language to 6 : English, French, Polish, Spanish, German, Dutch.
- 1 country to 11: UK, US, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, Poland, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Germany.
Quote:
“Receiving funding from Midven has allowed us to scale our business internationally and has been a catalyst for Whisk’s progression and success. I’m very grateful for the access to hands-on expertise and knowledge that we’ve had as part of the investment that Midven made into Whisk.com”
Nick Holzherr, CEO of Whisk.com
For more info about Whisk, see www.whisk.com or download the free Whisk app on the Apple or Google Play stores.