Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest, a firm that specialises in frozen food products such as ready-to-blend smoothies, has raised $1.1 billion in its current round of funding, according to founder and CEO Rachel Drori.

Drori said in an interview that the New York-based business achieved unicorn status by obtaining $77 million in an equity-funding round headed by Lone Pine Capital LLC, which included participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, an existing investor.

Drori explained, "Lone Pine recognises our objective and sees the possibility to shake up the entire food system." According to PitchBook statistics, Lone Pine has supported other consumer-focused firms such as salad chain Sweetgreen, suitcase manufacturer Away, and Torchy's Tacos.

Daily Harvest, which sells frozen soups, latte pods, almond milk, plant-based ice cream, and flatbreads directly to customers, will use some of the new financing to expand its distribution channels, according to Drori. The company plans to launch its first physical facility in Chicago in January, which it characterises as a "tasting room" experience.

"During the epidemic, customers' propensity to buy food online increased," said Drori, who admitted that a large portion of the population has yet to accept the practise. "We want our clients to be able to enjoy Daily Harvest no matter where they are."

Chobani, for example, has developed retail locations in order to raise brand awareness.

Daily Harvest, which was founded in 2015 and launched the following year, made almost $250 million in revenue last year. The company intends to grow its technological platform and menu, which now comprises over 100 products for meals and snacks throughout the day. According to Drori, the business hopes to offer a "Harvest Bakes" collection of foods in January that can be baked as a single dinner or side dish for a family.

The majority of Daily Harvest's components are organic fruits and vegetables, and the company claims that its food has no processed sugars, stabilisers, or artificial additives. According to the company's website, freezing certain foods the same day they're picked results in increased antioxidant, vitamin C, and beta carotene retention than refrigerated options.

"The bigger we get, the more good we can do," Drori said, adding that the company is focusing on "regenerative agriculture," which aims to reverse climate change through sustainable farming methods.

Because the majority of Daily Harvest's food is grown in the United States, the business hasn't faced the supply-chain issues that some of its larger competitors have, according to Drori, and it can innovate and alter goods faster than large conglomerates based on customer input. Customers, for example, baulked at needing to blend ingredients to produce ice cream and preferred a ready-made choice instead, leading to the creation of the company's "Scoops" product.

According to PitchBook data, Daily Harvest was recently valued at $380 million. Serena Williams' Serena Ventures, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bobby Flay, 3L, VMG Partners, and Suttona Capital were among its early backers.

Review of Daily Harvest: Simple, wholesome, and authentic meals on hand when you need them

Vegan smoothies, soups, bowls, and snacks that are ready-to-eat and created with high-quality ingredients — but is Daily Harvest worth the money?

Most of us like the concept of healthy food that's quick to prepare and easy to find, but certain futuristic predictions about how we'll eat in the future don't appeal to a guy like me. Nutritional satiation in the form of Soylent-style nutrient mixes, protein pastes, powders, and even *gasp* tablets to keep us nourished and free to pursue nonculinary pursuits. While I can see the practical appeal of these time-saving culinary "innovations," I can't envision myself relying on them. But what if there was a happy medium where you could always have actual meals on hand that didn't need a lot of effort, planning, or preparation?

Daily Harvest is a ready-to-eat meal delivery business that tries to fill the gap between pseudo-space-age diet plans and old-school cooking and eating, making it worth investigating. Daily Harvest has positioned itself as a semifuturistic food system that doesn't skimp on the, y'know, food part, with neatly packaged and (mostly) ready-to-eat vegan smoothies, harvest bowls, chia and oat bowls, flatbreads, desserts, and snacks, all made with quality superfoods that require minimal prep. Is Daily Harvest, on the other hand, any good? And is it worth the money? I opted to eat my way through a few weeks' worth of Daily Harvest meals and snacks to decide for myself because the internet evaluations of Daily Harvest were a little uneven. Here's my viewpoint on meal delivery services, as well as a firsthand account of Daily Harvest.

What is Daily Harvest and how does it work?

Weekly or monthly boxes of preassembled frozen vegan meals and healthy snacks are sent to your door, to be maintained that way (frozen) until you're ready to blend them or heat and eat them. Although the service is closer to a fully prepared meal delivery than Blue Apron or Home Chef, there is still some basic prep and cooking to be done — typically blending, mixing, or warming. Just keep in mind that, unlike Freshly or Factor, some of the Daily Harvest meals aren't microwave-ready.

Customers can construct a box by picking a combination of smoothies ($8), harvest bowls ($9), flatbreads ($9), soups ($8), or breakfast-oriented oat bowls and chia bowls ($6) from the company's attractive website. Low-sugar vegan ice creams ($9), protein bites ($8), and lattes ($8) are among the snacks and add-ons available at Daily Harvest.

All of the information for each meal — nutrition, ingredients, and culinary inspiration — was clearly available when you added it to your bag, making ordering straightforward and intuitive. User evaluations and ratings are also available for individual Daily Harvest items, which I found to be very useful. Month to month, the selection changes, although many of the bestsellers are always accessible. You may quickly filter the alternatives based on your dietary requirements, such as low-sugar options and meals that are keto- and paleo-friendly. You may also sort by flavour preferences, so if you don't care for vanilla or sweet potato, you can exclude meals that contain those ingredients.

What are the meals like at Daily Harvest?

In a nutshell, it's good for you. Smoothies, bowls, flatbreads, and the rest of the Daily Harvest menu all have one thing in common: a lot of healthy foods, superfoods, grains, fruits, vegetables, greens, beans, berries, and nuts. You can bet that if it's been a popular health food in the last decade — think avocado, kale, turmeric, matcha, and kabocha squash — you'll find it in at least a handful of Daily Harvest's dishes.

Açai and cherry smoothie, red lentil and cumin harvest bowl with spinach, cilantro, and coconut cream, kabocha squash and sage flatbread, and green chickpea and turmeric soup are some of the dishes on the menu. On the side of each container are all of the ingredients and nutritional information, as well as suggestions for how to prepare it, though you can always adjust to your own particular style and tastes.

How simple is it to prepare Daily Harvest meal kits?

Extremely simple. Many of the Daily Harvest soups, vegan ice cream, and protein bits come ready to eat (or reheat), while the smoothies, bowls, and flatbreads take very little preparation. For example, flatbreads just take a few minutes in the oven, while a Daily Harvest smoothie only takes a few minutes in the blender with almond milk, oat milk, cow's milk, or water (they recommend a specific beverage for each), and the harvest and oat bowls are simply heated and blended before eating. Though the microwave is recommended for bowls and some of the other Daily Harvest meals on the cartons, I like to use a skillet or saucepan whenever practical. While Daily Harvest foods are technically frozen meals, they are light years ahead of the high-sodium, low-nutrient frozen dinners of the past. No matter how you slice it, this is clearly healthy food. (Oh, and you won't have to slice anything because it's all ready to combine or heat and consume.)

What I cooked and ate, and how I felt about it

Before diving into my Daily Harvest review, I was understandably suspicious of these frozen meals, but I'll start by noting that I actually enjoyed the majority of them. To keep things new, the Daily Harvest culinary staff makes a conscious effort to vary spice mixes, veggie and fruit combinations, and grains. Nothing was overly sweet, salty, spicy, or sour, and everything tasted fresh and generally balanced. There were times after a few weeks when everything tasted the same, which could be due to a number of recurrent characters like cacao, avocado, lentils, squash, and nutritious dense greens, but to be fair, I was eating them at least a few times a week. The flatbreads, as you'll see below, didn't fare as well as the other categories.