Online grocer Misfits Market to acquire Imperfect Foods

Online grocer Misfits Market plans to acquire competitor Imperfect Foods, the company announced Wednesday.

The retailers will continue to operate separately “in the short term,” with Misfits Market founder and CEO Abhi Ramesh serving as CEO of the combined company. Executives from Imperfect Foods will join the Misfits Market leadership team, the company said.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to advance the shared mission of both brands, which is nothing less than a fundamental re-imagining of both the grocery category and the broken U.S. food system,” Ramesh said in a statement. “The strengths of the Imperfect Foods organization, from its in-house delivery fleet and robust private label program to its sustainability commitments and innovation, add immediate scale and depth to what we’re building at Misfits Market.”

The deal, Misfits Market said, would put the combined business on track to surpass $1 billion in sales and reach profitability by early 2024.

Misfits Market was founded in 2018 as a direct-to-consumer online grocer focused on reducing food waste through relationships with farmers, distributors and producers. The company is headquartered near Philadelphia and currently delivers organic produce, meat, seafood, dairy, bakery, wine, plant-based proteins and other items to nearly every community in 48 states, the company said.

Misfits has raised more than $525 million in lifetime funding, it said.

San Francisco-based Imperfect Foods, which is also focused on reducing food waste, was founded in 2015. It works with farmers and producers to “rescue, redistribute and develop goods” across multiple categories, including its own private label items. The company claims to have “saved” 166,422,948 pounds of food from landfills.

Both companies allow consumers to put together a weekly grocery order from among their offerings for delivery, while marketing that shoppers can skip a trip to the store while also doing good for the environment.

“Scale matters in grocery, and this combination makes us a truly meaningful disruptor in the space,” Imperfect Foods CEO Dan Park said in a statement. “The combined experience and expertise of this newly merged team will exponentially increase our ability to take on established players in the traditional grocery space.”