Automated cooking for tasty and healthy meals in a convenient way

Project Information

MealHero

Grant agreement ID: 888510

DOI

10.3030/888510

Project closed

EC signature date 28 November 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 31 January 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

MEALHERO BVBA
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MealHero (Automated cooking for tasty and healthy meals in a convenient way)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2020-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Mealhero’s concept offers healthy, delicious and personal meals with very little effort. It combines two trends: ever-increasing convenience and a healthy lifestyle. Current convenience offerings in the food sector are not always very healthy. As these types of meals are becoming more and more popular, it is important to make a solution available which is both healthy and convenient.

After a successful proof of concept in the Belgian market, this study was executed to validate the feasibility of the concept in a bigger, European market. The intentions of the feasibility study were two-fold: is Mealhero’s unique concept viable in new European countries from a 1) commercial and market perspective and from a 2) economical and financial perspective. Between October 2019 and January 2020, the study was executed and the following major results were achieved:
• A shortlist of interesting new EU markets with product/market fit has been made and validated
• A supply network and accompanying cost structure has been designed to be able to deliver the Mealhero service to these new EU markets.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During this study, Mealhero has done the following:
• Both top-down and bottom-up market analysis of multiple European markets.
• Built a narrowly defined target customer persona for the Mealhero service (based on the existing Belgian customer base).
• Tested willingness-to-pay for the Mealhero service in a shortlist of interesting EU markets
• Defined an internationalisation trajectory for the supply network
• Identified and selected potential suppliers for every part of the supply network
• Audited a shortlist of potential suppliers and signed contracts with some of them
• Decided on a launch schedule for new European markets depending on both commercial and operational factors.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of this feasibility study have allowed Mealhero to prepare the scale-up of its concept in new European markets and decide on a clear launch schedule. Through Mealhero’s service, customers in multiple countries will be able to enjoy healthy, delicious and personal meals with maximal convenience. Thanks to the supply network based on freshly frozen food, this service reduces both food-waste (due to long shelf life) and the environmental impact of home-delivery (due to monthly deliveries instead of weekly).

Mealhero will actively launch its second market in 2020, and expand further into Europe in 2021 and onwards. In order to support the growth of this European example of sustainable e-commerce, Mealhero will pursue an application for the SME Instrument EIC Accelerator program.

The mealhero concept explained in its three parts.