HelloFresh, a Germany-based meal kit delivery service backed by e-commerce group Rocket Internet, is set to relaunch efforts for an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The publication cited people familiar with the matter, who also said HelloFresh is waiting for preliminary third-quarter earnings to show to investors. The company would target a valuation of €1.5bn to €2bn ($1.8bn to $2.4bn) in the offering.
Founded in 2011, HelloFresh enables users to sign up to a subscription-based service that delivers meal kits that include recipes and precise quantities of ingredients to cook at home. The company is currently active in nine markets including the US, but remains unprofitable.
The IPO would follow that of HelloFresh’s US-based competitor Blue Apron, which floated in June 2017 only to experience a rapid decline in value, with shares crashing from a high of $11 on opening day to $5.25 as of last Friday’s market close.
HelloFresh previously sought an initial public offering in 2015, filing for a €300m flotation in October that year but withdrawing its plans the following month citing unfavourable market conditions.
The company has raised more than $365m in capital to date, including $88m in funding from investment firm Bailie Gifford and an unnamed new investor In December 2016 at a €2.6bn valuation.
Rocket Internet, which currently owns a 53% stake in the business, provided it with $115m in funding in February 2015.
Baillie Gifford had invested $84.7m in HelloFresh 2014, after Rocket Internet and Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of household product retailer Vorwerk, as well as investment firm Kinnevik and VC firm Holtzbrinck Ventures had supplied $10m in 2012.