Spoon Guru has secured a Series A funding round with W23, the venture capital arm of Australia’s largest retailer, Woolworths Group.

The roughly £3 million investment will be used to expand the London-based food search and discovery technology startup’s footprint with retailers across Asia Pacific, North America and Europe.

Co-founded in 2015 by Markus Stripf, Tim Allen and Simon O’Regan, Spoon Guru launched into the UK with a Tesco partnership in 2017, supporting shoppers with individual dietary preferences.

In 2018, the company partnered with Woolworths Group’s to support its health ambitions in Australia and New Zealand and since then has secured further retail partnerships in the Netherlands and the US.

As well as further geographic expansion, Spoon Guru will use the funds to fuel product innovation in-store and online. Through the combination of machine learning with nutritional expertise, the startup lets food retailers deliver personalised experiences tailored to each customer, based on their distinct and unique dietary, health, and wellness needs.

Recent product launches include the Immunity Support TAG in response to the pandemic.

Markus Stripf, co-founder of Spoon Guru, commented: “With governments worldwide launching campaigns to tackle obesity and related lifestyle diseases, consumers are now thinking about how food impacts their health and wellness.

“It is our mission to provide retailers with the tools they need to ensure healthier food discovery, thereby improving basket sizes and values and in turn driving customer loyalty and growth for our partners – the funding will ensure we can further develop our product suite and expertise in driving towards this goal.”

W23 was established by the Woolworths Group in 2019 to partner with innovative startups as part of a retail ecosystem strategy. Ingrid Maes, managing director of W23, said: “Spoon Guru’s specialist algorithms are already meeting the health goals and dietary requirements of millions of Woolworths’ customers.”

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