LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Door to Door Organics, a leading natural and organic online grocer, today announced that it has secured $25.5 million in Series B financing. The investment was led by the Arlon Group, a New York based global food and agriculture investment firm, with the participation of Greenmont Capital Partners II, an investment fund based in Boulder, Colo. that invested $3.25 million in a Series A investment in 2012. Door to Door Organics will use the funding to continue executing on its proven growth model as a leading natural and organic online grocer and accelerate its expansion into additional markets. Michelle Brooks, a Managing Principal at Arlon Group, and Alexander Bernstein, a Principal at Arlon Group, will join the company’s board of directors.
Since its inception in 2005, Door to Door Organics has adhered to a lean, iterative approach to both market expansion and product development. By targeting a mix of Midwestern and mid-level markets, and offering unique and local artisan products through a guided shopping experience, the company has been able to successfully establish a significant customer base across 30 cities. This focus on quality products and the customer experience extends to the company’s highly scalable and profitable operating model, which offers many levers for sustainable growth. In an industry that currently only represents two percent of the $650 billion in domestic grocery spending, but is expected to increase to 11 percent of the total market by 2023, Door to Door Organics’ proven approach to strategic growth ensures the company will succeed in the rapidly changing competitive landscape.
“The incredible growth of the online grocery industry in recent years has led to an extremely high amount of investment and innovation,” said Michelle Brooks. “We’ve been studying the online grocery industry since 2010 and Door to Door Organics is one of the few companies in the industry that has a proven model for growth and a demonstrated record of profitability. As the market continues to expand we are confident that the company’s model will enable it to exceed our expectations for success.”
Recognizing that their customers are striving to achieve a lifestyle rather than adhere to a one-size-fits-all shopping trip, Door to Door Organics offers a personalized, contextual shopping platform and provides time-saving tools like Shop by Recipe®, simple meal planning and Restock (simple repeatable solutions for regular customers to consolidate the planning and shopping process). The company also offers customers an easy and convenient way to shop and support local farming and artisan initiatives. With more than 200 local farming partners, Door to Door Organics operates with a fully integrated, multi-state, farm-to-table USDA-certified organic product supply chain (approximately 70 percent of produce supply is local during growing season).
“We help our customers to live a healthy lifestyle by making it simple to get natural, organic and locally sourced food through a powerful online shopping platform,” said Chad Arnold, CEO of Door to Door Organics. “Our focus is on high-quality fresh food and helping people make great meals, not replacing all the other stuff that you can get at the grocery store. This latest round of financing from Arlon Group will help to catalyze our expansion efforts and allow us to further deliver on this core focus – all while delivering on a sustainable ecommerce grocery business model.”
Door to Door Organics currently operates in 11 markets and 30 cities, including Denver, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, where the company recently expanded service with the addition of a new 25,000 square-foot warehouse. The company has made more than 1.7 million deliveries to date and projects driving more than 37,000 new customers by the end of 2014.
Recognized as investment experts in the global food and agriculture industries, Arlon Group has a strong interest in high-growth companies who are operating at the intersection of organic and sustainable food production. The firm’s investment portfolio spans the entire food supply chain, including partnerships with The Chia Company, the largest marketer and distributor of Chia seeds worldwide, and Wholesome Sweeteners, the nation's leading importer and marketer of USDA Organic, Fair Trade CertifiedTM and sustainably produced sweeteners.
Wedbush Securities acted as exclusive placement agent to Door to Door Organics in the transaction.
To learn more about Door to Door Organics, please visit www.doortodoororganics.com or on Facebook.
About Door to Door Organics
Door to Door Organics is empowering its customers with new, easier ways to shop, plan and cook family meals, and make healthier food choices that also support their local communities and the environment. The Company delivers fresh, high-quality, organic, natural and local food directly to homes, offices and schools throughout the West, Midwest and East Coast.
About Arlon Group
Arlon Group is a global food and agriculture investment firm that invests across the entire food supply chain. Arlon's investment focus comes from its roots, which began with its founding investor, Continental Grain, a 200-year-old leader in the food and agriculture space. The firm's investment professionals are experts in global food and agriculture investing and work collaboratively across geographies to identify and back growth-oriented, middle-market businesses that benefit from the investment team’s shared knowledge and resources. Arlon Group has approximately $800 million in assets under management and is headquartered in New York, with a presence in São Paulo, Brazil and in Beijing and Hong Kong, China through a local affiliate. For more information, visit www.arlongroup.com.
