Brookes graduate Martin Holden-White is succeeding in his mission to get everyone eating plant-based
Grubby is on a mission to make plant-based cooking more accessible without costing the earth and that mission started right here at Oxford Brookes!
Martin Holden-White completed his International Hospitality Management Degree in 2014 and since then has set forth on his entrepreneurial journey through the creation of Grubby. Grubby is the UK’s first 100% plant-based recipe kit and started out delivering on two bikes and now, even through the struggles of a pandemic, they have sold over 50,000 meals nationwide.
Brookes Enterprise Support and Martin have continued to have a close relationship throughout Grubby’s success. Last year, in collaboration with BES and Santander Universities, Grubby facilitated a Marketing and Operations Support Internship that provided the opportunity to design digital marketing content for Grubby as well as showcasing the operational logistics of the delivery process. Martin also made an appearance on an episode of our recently launched Lost and Founded Podcast, which aims to document the true stories of successful startups and entrepreneurs. Martin opened up about his entrepreneurial ambitions, the first two years of starting Grubby and what led to him launching Grubby’s first crowdfunding campaign - a crowdfunding campaign which has proved to be a big hit!
Martin commented: "It's been a very humbling vote of confidence to see our crowdfunding campaign take off in the way it has. We knew our Grubby community was awesome, but we've been blown away by the level of support. We're extremely excited and busy planning for the next phase of our growth to bring Grubby to more and more people across the UK and beyond."
Having set a target of £720,000 to fund their marketing, product development and tech, Grubby has now raised over £1 million with investors including the founders of travel agency Skyscanner and international payments business World First. This comes as no surprise when considering what Grubby is achieving within the growing industries of plant-based food and food e-commerce. Grubby has received 200+ 5 star reviews in the past year and, in the last quarter of trading, increased sales by 130%. Grubby is in a prime position to become a household name of the meal kit industry, and we at BES can’t wait to continue our collaborations with Martin and see Grubby go from strength to strength!
If you want to find out more about Grubby and join them on their journey, make sure to check out their website and follow them on Instagram!