Blue Apron, the delivered-to-your-door meal kit brand that parses out ingredients for you, has finally filed its public IPO, getting gears in motion to hit the New York Stock Exchange. In its lengthy Security and Exchange Commission filing, Blue Apron seeks to raise $100 million in its initial offering in its quest to finally turn a profit. “In the years ended December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, we incurred net losses of $(30.8) million, $(47.0) million and $(54.9) million, respectively,” the company reports. In just the first quarter of this year, the brand recorded a loss of $52 million.
Blue Apron does point out, however, that revenues have grown tenfold between 2014 and 2016 (from $77 million to $795 million), and much of those losses occur in increased expenditures related to growing the business — like a $144.1 million marketing budget for last year alone. (TechCrunch, however, seems optimistic about its prospects, noting that Blue Apron recorded a profit during the first quarter of 2016 before seeing its costs spiral; “younger companies are expected to burn a ton of money,” it writes.)
The meal-kit market, of which Blue Apron is the biggest name, is growing increasingly saturated, with everyone from Williams-Sonoma to the New York Times to Ayesha Curry getting into the game. Today’s IPO follows a June 2015 funding round that saw the brand raise $135 million.
• Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. [SEC.gov]
• Meal Ingredient Delivery Service Blue Apron Is the Next Big Consumer IPO [TechCrunch]