KoRo management team, Florian Schwenkert, Piran Asci, Constantinos Calios | Image credit: KoRo
Berlin-based KoRo Handels, an omnichannel food brand, announced on Thursday that it has secured €20M extension to close its Series B round of funding at €75M.
New shareholders SevenVentures, Associated British Foods, and Family Office Haub Legacy participated in the round with existing shareholders HV Capital, Five Seasons Ventures, and Partech.
The announcement comes over a year after raising €50M in its Series B round of funding.
With the newly secured funds, KoRo plans to accelerate its direct-to-consumer online growth and expand its retail listings across Europe.
The company will also focus on growth in established markets in the DACH region and further its international expansion into France, Italy, and Scandinavia.
“Thanks to the capital injection and privileged access to mass market media via one of our new investors SevenVentures, we want to make Koro ubiquitous: from TV, to Out of Home campaigns, to listing in every supermarket. We will be everywhere, no chance to avoid it,” says KoRo Co-CEO Piran Asci.
Democratising high-quality food
KoRo was founded in 2014 and was developed by Constantinos Calios, Piran Asci, and Florian Schwenkert, who joined the management team in 2020.
The company’s goal is to create transparent supply chains by sourcing ingredients directly from producers, implementing efficient logistic processes, and selecting simple-designed bulk packaging solutions.
By doing so, the German company claims to make high-quality food available to everyone at fair prices, and plans to save 100 tonnes of plastic packaging in 2022.
The company’s product range includes a wide variety of long-life, natural, and processed foods as well as kitchen utensils, cooking accessories, and hygiene products.
Its vision is to become Europe’s leading supplier of food and products by consistently implementing five basic principles: quality, short supply chains, bulk packaging, fair prices, and transparency.
“KoRo is pursuing the goal of becoming the leading omnichannel brand for natural, innovative, and high-quality food in the European market. In doing so, we are building a sustainable business model, to be prepared for future challenges”, says KoRo COO Florian Schwenkert.
Currently, the company employs around 260 people and has acquired 500,000 new customers throughout 2022 in 17 markets.
Just recently, KoRo’s vegan and gluten-free oat bar was listed in all on-board bistros of Deutsche Bahn, the largest long-distance transport provider in Germany.
In addition, the KoRo Protein Bar Deluxe filled with pistachio butter is constantly a best seller in Germany’s largest drugstore group dm.
“Despite the uncertain economic situation, we were able to further grow in 2022 and are aiming for sustainable profitable growth and a turnover of considerably over €100m in 2023. Receiving further financing from existing and even new investors is a great sign of confidence for us, especially given the challenging environment for fundraising,” adds KoRo CFO Daniel Kundt.
The Investor
SevenVentures is a venture capital firm that accelerates the growth of B2C companies with cash and media investments and operational support.
“With our wide-reaching digital and TV channels of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, we will help KoRo to increase brand awareness and to reach an even broader target group. In this way, we can drive KoRo’s sustainable growth and promote further distribution of the products in retail. We look forward to working in partnership with the KoRo Team,” says Florian Hirschberger, CEO SevenVentures.