Soylent rival Huel just raised $26 million in funding

Huel
cofounders James Collier (left) Julian Hearn (right) and CEO
James McMaster (middle).
Huel

• Huel, a startup which ships out powdered food, has
  raised £20 million ($26 million) in funding.
• At three years old, Huel’s revenue growth seems to have
  been exponential, with turnover set to more than triple on last
  year’s revenue.
• Huel’s product comprises dry, oat-coloured powder that
  the startup claims provides all the nutrition people need, and
  it’s made and consumed a little like a smoothie.

Buzzy powdered food startup Huel has raised £20 million ($26
million) in funding from growth equity investor Highland
Europe. The money is Huel’s first external investment since it
launched in 2015.

Huel sells “nutritionally complete” powder which customers
mix with water, and which can replace meals. It also makes energy
bars and granola.

“Huel has been profitable since day one and is on track to triple
turnover this year,” cofounder Julian Hearn said in a statement.
“In order to accelerate growth, expand our product portfolio and
reach new markets, we decided to take external funding into the
company.”

 CEO James McMaster told Business Insider that people at
Huel had been debating for a while whether or not to fundraise,
after brand awareness grew and more and more people started
approaching.”It felt like it was the right time to have a
partner,” he said.

Mixing a bottle of
Huel.
Huel

Huel was founded in the UK in 2012, and has started launching in
new countries in a big way this year.

“We actually launched in the US last year and that’s going
incredibly well for us,” McMaster said. “Europe growth has been
big, but obviously when you’re a business without much access to
funds and cash it’s much harder to take big risks on things. With
some funding and some extra experience elsewhere allows us to go
even faster,” he said.

Huel’s UK site exports globally, and McMaster said it Huel
already sells to 80 countries. “So we know that it’s a global
business already, albeit quite small in most of those markets.”

At three years old, Huel’s growth seems pretty exponential.
McMaster said that after its first year Huel’s yearly turnover
went from £1 million, to £5 million, to £14 million. He says
Huel’s fourth year will see over £40 million in turnover. 

You can read here how one Business Insider fared when he tried
replacing all his meals with Huel.