HelloFresh raises $88M, bringing total VC funding to nearly $360M as company looks toward possible IPO
Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
HelloFresh's new $88M round extends the $85M raise that valued the Rocket Internet company at $2.9B in September 2015, lifting total VC funding to nearly $360M — and the stated goal is a possible IPO. The timing matters: Takeaway.com went public just weeks ago, raising $368M at a $1.1B valuation in October.
The German delivery ecosystem is converging on the same exit path. Delivery Hero raised $110M at over $3.1B ahead of its own listing, and has since moved toward a German IPO — giving HelloFresh a template, and Rocket Internet a portfolio-wide proof point.
First-order effects
- HelloFresh gains fresh capital to scale meal-kit operations while it prepares for a public listing, without diluting through an IPO at today's terms.
- Rocket Internet now holds two flagship food-delivery assets — HelloFresh and Delivery Hero — both explicitly positioned for public markets.
Second-order effects
- Takeaway.com's successful $368M IPO gives underwriters and investors a fresh European comparable, likely shaping how HelloFresh's own listing is priced.
- Rivals like Sprig, which raised $45M in 2015, face competitors with both deeper war chests and clearer exit paths, pressuring smaller meal-delivery players toward consolidation or acquisition.
Third-order effects
- If HelloFresh follows Takeaway.com and Delivery Hero to market, European food delivery shifts from a venture-funded land grab to a publicly listed sector where quarterly revenue disclosure becomes the competitive scoreboard.
- A successful HelloFresh IPO would validate the Rocket Internet incubate-and-list model, encouraging more copycat e-commerce ventures to be built for early public exits rather than long private growth.
The trend: European food-delivery companies are graduating from large late-stage VC rounds to public listings, with Germany emerging as the preferred venue.