AAA Ikea helps spoon funding to Matsmart

Ikea helps spoon funding to Matsmart

Sweden-based discount food e-commerce platform Matsmart has raised SEK100m ($12.6m) in funding from investors including furniture and domestic product retailer Ikea, Nordic9 has reported.

Investment banking firm GP Bullhound also took part in the round, along with venture capital firms Edastra Venture Capital, Inbox Capital and Northzone, and undisclosed angel investors.

D-Ax, a corporate venturing subsidiary of trading group Axel Johnson, and Norrsken Foundation had invested $8.9m in Matsmart last month in a deal that was likely the first close of the latest round.

Founded in 2013, Matsmart acquires surplus pantry food items from retailers that are close to or past their best-before dates which it then sells on at a heavy discount through its website. The company expects to book revenues of SEK200m for 2017.

Ikea’s investment is intended to align with a target that will involve it recycling or converting 90% of its food waste for further usage by August 2020.

Northzone and GP Bullhound joined existing backer Edastra to invest almost $3.4m in Matsmart in 2015, before the former two returned for a $3.9m round in November 2016 that included Inbox Capital, Tedlex Capital Partners and angel investors Magnus Lindstam and Michael Knutzon.

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