Boxes, boxes, boxes delivered home
3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 291
News 1. Direct from Japan, Bokksu delivers Japanese snacks — and gathers $22m
Bokksu is a big surprise. Got significant fundings for a niche — delivers a box with snacks, candy and teas from small Japanese producers. Products that one can only find in Japan — Mochis, Senbei crackers, etc. Box starts at $39 with 24 snacks and teas and a booklet that explains the products. Opinion: Founder Danny Taing was “laughed at in the room” with the idea. However the niche does work with a subscription box with completely unique products. A niche that is big enough in the US.
Many trend scouters (for food) will order it to discover new tastes, new forms from trendy Japan.
News 2. Gousto, the UK champion. Even profitable
Gousto is the UK shooting star for meal kit boxes, with only two types of boxes — regular or large. Everything is recipe based — a recipe and the corresponding ingredients. Gousto published results for 2021 (GBP 315m revenue and 20m profit). Gousto has already delivered 90 million boxes. Opinion: Key success factor of Gousto is the limited choice of boxes, only two. But a choice of 60 recipes, depending on product sourcing. Tech and AI play a role to manage that best. Gousto calibrates the box for couples or families, hence avoiding food waste.
Super process to a box delivered 2 to 3 days later. Muito Gusto!
News 3. Imperfect vegetables worth a $526m invest. Misfits!
Another surprise in this list, Misfits Market. They deliver a subscription box of imperfect fruits and vegetables. they call it “the ugly problem”. The products are cheaper than in supermarkets. Consumers save and contribute bluntly to less waste. Opinion: Misfits Markets is mainly eco-friendly products and added more than vegetables and fruits. Even an own label, adequately named “Odds and Ends”. They have a very good run, gathered half a billion investment and are just publishing record numbers, 13m boxes delivered.
Ugly tastes good!
Author is the research team (10 trend scouters) at specialist Space and Lemon Innovations (Hamburg, Berlin) — scouting innovations in main tech geographies, AI development, virtual worlds and e-commerce. Excerpts of research are gathered here in original weekly news since 2016, always with an opinion — no re-write of TechCrunch.
Come back next Monday and share your opinion.
