SCALING A PURPOSE-DRIVEN BUSINESS
“It’s a challenging process that requires a great deal of commitment..”
CEO & Co-founder, Monica Meldrum was the keynote speaker at the Summit. She shared her inspiring journey to build Whole Kids into a household brand name available in all supermarkets in Australia.
The philosophy at Whole Kids is simple. “We believe in creating a happier, healthier world for kids. We believe in unjunking our food and our lives.”
With a goal to deliver 20 million healthier choices by 2020, they were able to attract key corporate support from Qantas Airlines. They replaced meals on Qantas previously supplied by one of the largest FMCG players in the world – Cadbury Schweppes. Another win was taking over sponsorship of Little Athletics SA from McDonald’s.
A number of years on, they have smashed that goal and have then looked to the future. Their plans are ambitious, looking to expand both internationally and in broadening their offer to older children. Making this happen has not been easy and over the last month, they have just completed their third capital raise. We caught up with Monica to learn more.
Q Why did you go after this capital raise?
In the past 12 months, we’ve invested heavily in developing two new brands to realise our vision of creating a wellness portfolio for families. This raise is an important one in securing the required capital to now accelerate our growth.
SCALING A PURPOSE-DRIVEN BUSINESS
“It’s a challenging process that requires a great deal of commitment..”
CEO & Co-founder, Monica Meldrum was the keynote speaker at the Summit. She shared her inspiring journey to build Whole Kids into a household brand name available in all supermarkets in Australia.
The philosophy at Whole Kids is simple. “We believe in creating a happier, healthier world for kids. We believe in unjunking our food and our lives.”
With a goal to deliver 20 million healthier choices by 2020, they were able to attract key corporate support from Qantas Airlines. They replaced meals on Qantas previously supplied by one of the largest FMCG players in the world – Cadbury Schweppes. Another win was taking over sponsorship of Little Athletics SA from McDonald’s.
A number of years on they have smashed that goal and have then looked to future. Their plans are ambitious looking to expand both internationally and in broadening their offer to older children. Making this happen has not been easy and over the last month they have just completed their third capital raise. We caught up with Monica to learn more.
Q Why did you go after this capital raise?
In the past 12 months, we’ve invested heavily in developing two new brands to realise our vision of creating a wellness portfolio for families. This raise is an important one in securing the required capital to now accelerate our growth.
Q What factors were most important in driving this capital raise?
The most important factor driving this raise is values alignment along with additional skills and smarts that investors can contribute to the business beyond the capital. As a certified B Corporation, our crowd is very important to us. Our investors are our community, many of whom are contributing in other ways beyond their investment and all of whom are incredibly passionate and share our vision for creating a healthy world for kids.
Q Personally, what have you found most satisfying? And most challenging?
The most satisfying part of the raise is connecting with so many people who really believe in our vision and are wanting to come on the journey to help us realise our ambitions for the business. It is a challenging process and requires a great deal of commitment and energy, really putting your business and yourself out there and being 100% committed to the raise to ensure its success.
Q Any tips for new players?
It’s very important to be in a position to drop the day to day and make the time to focus on the raise. Being there to connect with investors, field queries and conduct meetings to review and discuss your IM is critical to a successful outcome and to finding the right investment partner(s).
Q What can we expect to see as a result of this?
We have had some significant and strategic interest in supporting us to fast track our growth plans. We are excited to be welcoming in a new era for Nourish Foods that will see the business realise its full potential.
Missed the Summit? Watch the Keynote here.