DELLI, the latest startup from Depop founder Simon Beckerman, has just raised a €2.9 million seed investment and announced its soft launch. The London-based startup offers a marketplace and community platform designed for food lovers.
The raise celebrates the second joining of forces for Beckerman and HV Capital, after their previous venture together, the runaway success story Depop, was acquired in June by Etsy.
DELLI has been created with the ambition to create a community-led platform within the food and drink world that advocates sustainable approaches. The vision is to make the DELLI platform and app a source of inspiration, connection, and a supportive network for all those obsessed with food.
Simon Beckerman, DELLI’s CEO and founder said: “I enjoy creating spaces for communities that seemingly don’t exist in the mainstream. Throughout the last two years, the hospitality industry moved away from the high street and into our local neighbourhoods and people’s kitchens. The sentiment of sustainability that has come out of the hardship is what DELLI is based on. We hope to build a community that will cultivate a more fun and sustainable future, where the food and drink world becomes more thoughtful, and everyone’s a part of it.”
Going beyond the recipes and ingredients, DELLI will take time to share the stories and concepts behind the food and drink that we all enjoy. Further, after an incredibly disruptive two years in the hospitality sector, the foodtech startup wants to support the innovative pivots, the new localised networks, and the fighting spirit that emerged in the food industry amidst the storm.
From chocolate to hot sauce, olive oil to kefir, pies to dumplings, and restaurant chefs to home cooks, DELLI provides a space for makers and buyers to interact with each other and follow the journeys of favourite restaurants, independent brands and individuals, plus those trying out their first product.
At the forefront of this startup is sustainability. In the food industry, one of the main challenges is avoiding food waste. DELLI aims to support small producers with food waste challenges by adopting a ‘drops’ style approach, helping to manage cash and ingredient flow. ‘Drops’ are product releases with a limited quality that are available for a limited time. The result is a fun way to generate buzz around small-batch releases, allowing producers and sellers to be inspired to try new things, without the fear of wasting resources.
For DELLI’s vision though, sustainability goes beyond sourcing and zero-waste. At the core is creating a sustainable community through building businesses that are people-centric.
Already the platform has a range of makers onboarded, including; My Neighbour The Dumplings, Kold Sauce, 40ft Brewery, Mama Chen, Tacos Padre, Lil Wong Bakes, Papi’s Pickles, Nourished Communities, Kefir Magic and Rapscallion Soda. This fresh funding boost will allow DELLI to come out of stealth mood before the big reveal in February 2022.
