Tech-driven Butternut Box eats its own dog food — raises $55.4M to scale-up

Butternut Box, a London-based fresh dog food business with a tech-driven platform that delivers HelloFresh-style, catered dogfood, has raised $55.4 million (€47.2 million) in a funding round led by L Catterton, the consumer-focused private equity firm, and included participation from White Star Capital, Five Seasons Ventures and Passion Capital. We covered their early funding round back in 2017.

Founded in 2016, Butternut Box bills itself as a “human-grade, fresh dog food company” with a “personalized dietary offering” driven by its own tech platform.

Jean-Philippe Barade, Partner, L Catterton Europe, and head of the firm’s London office, commented; “We have long been impressed by how Butternut Box has established itself as the trusted brand of choice in the UK among a loyal base of pet owners… Butternut Box continues to leverage its innovative digital platform to raise the bar in the growing pet food market.”

Led by Goldman Sachs alumni Kevin Glynn and David Nolan, the company says its proprietary algorithm identifies how many calories each individual dog needs based on age, weight, breed, activity levels, and body condition and then pre-portions this amount into daily servings.

It also makes its own “natural” dog food, because studies show that dogs fed a natural diet have a longer life capacity than those fed on industrial canned products – up to 3 years, a long time in dog years. Since British dog owners spend over £200 million in vet’s fees, overfeeding, and unhealthy food is a key issue for owners.

However, Butternut Box is not alone, since they competing with Lily’s Kitchen, Tails.com and Natural Instinct for this lucrative new market.