In this episode, I interview Jonathan Petrides – aka JP – from allplants, a plant-based frozen food subscription service in the UK.
JP is a serial entrepreneur passionate about building businesses that solve major global problems. He founded Africa's first and fastest growing mobile bank, M-Shwari, which now has more than 30 million users, most of whom previously had no access to a bank account, and issues more than 100,000 new loans each day.
He also founded an award-winning retail health chain, Penda Health, in Kenya, bringing a new model for affordable mass-market healthcare to East Africa.
After returning to the UK, he started allplants with his brother Alex in January 2016, soft-launching the first range of frozen plant-based meals to family and friends, before rolling out the subscription-based service nationwide in January 2017.
In May last year allplants secured £800,000 funding from Felix Capital. This was the first time the venture capital firm had invested in a plant-based startup and the largest amount raised for a European plant-based startup to date.
In this interview, JP talks about:
• The importance of testing concepts before committing to and launching a new business
• The innovative way allplants carried out recipe tests
• The dangers of relying on grants or competitions to fund your business and why you shouldn’t think of them as ‘free’ money
• How allplants managed to raise £800,000 in investment funding
• The most important thing you must have in place before approaching investors
• How to know when you are ready for investment – and the ideal situation to be in when preparing to do this
• Why he decided to make the company a B-Corp
• Why talking openly and endlessly about your project in the early stages, rather than keeping your ideas a secret, is the key to success and attracting the right connections
• And much more
Visit the allplants website
Brands mentioned in vegan business news roundup:
Booja Booja
The Lip Bar
Sheese (Bute Island Foods)
Tofurky
RESOURCES:
My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight
My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business
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