An online meal planner and shopping platform which allows users to create weekly meal plans from thousands of recipes, and automatically generate shopping lists at major supermarkets, has launched to selected users.
Lollipop – founded by former COO of Monzo Bank Tom Foster-Carter – currently allows meal plans to be created based on dietary requirements and other user preferences, with ingredients ordered directly from Sainsbury’s online. Users are given the ability to select Sainsbury’s delivery slots via the app’s interface.
The meal plan-generated orders can be topped up with users’ manually selected items, such as household essentials.
All users that signed up to a waiting list for the service are now able to use it, with a wider launch expected soon.
The platform is free to use, with no mark-up on products. The company said it planned to introduce “premium features for power users” but its core product “will always be free”. Those early adopters now using the platform have been promised free premium accounts “for life”.
Recipes offered are a combination of the platform’s own unique recipes, “crafted by expert chefs, nutrition partners” and others from BBC Good Food. It is expected user-generated recipes will soon feature too.
Lollipop – whose team includes former Sainsbury’s, Farmdrop, Hello Fresh and Amazon employees – expects to introduce every major supermarket on to the platform. Users will pick their supermarket up front, before they start using the app.
For partnering retailers, Lollipop user orders come in through their own e-commerce platforms with a full view of the customer. Lollipop handles the integration of the online propositions into the app, with the app taking a “modest cut” on each order.
Foster-Carter has referred to Lollipop as a “Monzo-ish play in online grocery”. One of the first app-based challenger banks in the UK, Monzo now has more than four million customers.
While several supermarkets allowed customers to browse recipes online then ‘add all ingredients’ to their baskets. Lollipop’s edge was in its user experience, he told The Grocer late last year.
The company has raised funding from venture capital firms including Deliveroo backer JamJar;, Speedinvest; and angel investors such as Ian Marsh, former CEO of HelloFresh UK and Kai Hansen, founder of food delivery company Lieferando, since acquired by Just Eat.
The company said its backers had “scaled companies like Ocado, Innocent, Babylon and Deliveroo”, adding “we know what it takes to build products enjoyed by millions of people across the world”.
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