1. Startups

Baby Catering Startup “Grouu” Announces New Round Led by Teja Ventures

Grouu will go into catering products for children aged one year and over sold through e-commerce sites and platforms

Baby food catering startup Grouu announced a fresh funding round led by Teja Ventures with participation from Arkana Venture and Javas Capital. No mention of the funds achieved in this round.

Grou will use the funds to expand product lines, distribution channels by opening a production facility in Surabaya, and start penetrating retail networks, both online and offline.

Previous, at the end of this January, the company secured $400k in seed funding from Selera Kapital, the investment arm of the Sour Sally Group. Followed by a number of angel investors, such as Wesley Harjono (Managing Director of Plug and Play Indonesia) and Rama Notowidigdo (Co-founder of Sayurbox and AwanTunai).

Grou's entry inside portfolio of Teja Ventures confirmed the commitment of the Singaporean VC as an investment with a gender lens (gender lens investing). Teja Ventures sees the magnitude of the impact Grouu has had on consumers, the majority of whom are women, supported by the potential of the mother and child market in Indonesia.

In an official statement, Head of Investment for Teja Ventures in Indonesia, David Soukhasing, said that his party had established good relations with investors founder Grou a long time ago. Their consistency in serving quality food to Indonesian children is very much in line with Teja's mission to support companies that have a positive impact on empowering women.

“And, putting forward the vision to reduce stunting or malnutrition in Indonesia. So, it is an honor for us to be able to support Grouu in developing a business model that is also included in the The Future of Food category that we uphold," said Soukhasing, Tuesday (13/9).

Co-founder and CEO of Grouu, Jessica Martin, said the company received positive interest since its establishment two years ago until now. In the first month of operation, daily demand was in the range of dozens to dozens of servings. But in August 2022, the number reached thousands of portions.

“This is certainly our motivation to continue to provide the best for parents who entrust the fulfillment of their baby's nutrition to Grou. That's why we also involve nutritionists, food scientists, chefs, and pediatricians in the process of developing Grouu's products and menus," he said.

Grou market potential

Jessica continued, in this second year, she mentioned Grou had achieved product-market-fit. Thanks to that, his party will release a catering product for children aged one year and over called Mini Meals which are sold through the website e-commerce. The new menu is one of the company's efforts to extend the life value of customers (customer life time).

"We will continue to develop the performance of the website as a platform that makes it easier for customers to subscribe, and can be integrated with other services in the future."

More Coverage:

Initially, Grouu positioned himself as a provider of complementary feeding (MPASI) for infants aged six months and over with the selection of quality raw materials, taste, and complete nutritional content in each dish. In the midst of busy activities in taking care of early childhood, the presence of a practical, healthy and nutritious food menu is one of the things that parents really need today.

Meanwhile, the problem of nutrition and child health is still the Indonesian government's homework. Data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health in 2020 states that the prevalence of stunting (short) in Indonesian toddlers is 27,7%, or 28 out of 100 toddlers are stunted. In fact, the first 1.000 days of a baby's life is a golden age for child growth and development. Unfortunately, many children who should be the hope of the nation's future are still experiencing nutritional problems at an early age.

According to the Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), the birth rate in Indonesia will reach 4,8 million in 2021 and is predicted to exceed 5 million in 2022. This population growth is one of the main factors for investors' confidence in the market potential for the needs of mothers and children, as well as Grouu's vision in presenting integrated solutions for millennial parents in Indonesia.

Are you sure to continue this transaction?
Yes
No
processing your transactions....
Transaction Failed
try Again

Sign up for our
newsletter

Subscribe Newsletter
Are you sure to continue this transaction?
Yes
No
processing your transactions....
Transaction Failed
try Again