Introducing new investment partners, Planetary.
We weren't actively looking for investment.
Growing Good has grown almost entirely by word of mouth. The farms and veg box schemes we work with told other farms and veg box schemes. That's still how most of our growth happens. It meant we could build slowly, stay close to the community we serve, and avoid the pressure that comes with taking capital from people who want it back quickly.
By last autumn we'd pushed the business past break-even - admittedly on a lean cost base, while still delivering significant year-on-year growth. We were in the unusual position of being able to genuinely consider going it alone. No outside money, no outside pressure. Just keep building.
So when we say we've been selective about investors, we mean it. It wasn't negotiating posture.
We've closed a round with Planetary Impact Ventures, a Danish evergreen fund backing companies building a regenerative food system. Here's why we said yes.
Years of searching for the right match
Planetary's founders know the veg box world from the inside. They were involved in establishing the Danish equivalent of Riverford - the UK's largest organic box scheme - so they understand, at a practical level, what it takes to run a short supply chain food business. They've watched the sector evolve across Europe and understood for years that the software layer is one of the important leverage points: if you can make it genuinely easier to run a box scheme, you make it easier for more of them to exist.
They'd spent years looking for a platform with the potential to deliver real systemic change - not just a marginal operational improvement. They looked at options right across Europe.
When they found Growing Good, they got excited again. We're trying not to let that go to our heads. But we think it says something real - about what this market has been missing, and about what the team here has quietly been building.
Why patient capital was our only option
Conventional VC would have been the wrong fit, and we knew it early. Most funds have a fixed lifespan - and that creates a quiet pressure: grow fast, exit clean, return capital. That model isn't wrong for every business. But it's wrong for us.
The farms we work with think in seasons, in cycles, and in some cases generations. The food system change that Planetary - and we - believe in is not a five-year story. If we'd taken the wrong capital we'd have had to become a different kind of company.
Planetary's evergreen structure means they're not working towards a fixed exit. Their interests and ours point in the same direction: build something that genuinely works for farmers and growers, for as long as it needs to.
That's why we said yes.
Joining a thriving ecosystem
Being part of the Planetary portfolio puts us in interesting company. Their investments span the whole chain - the soil health and regenerative farming practices that make good food possible in the first place; the producers and ingredient makers finding ways to reduce waste and land use; and the distribution and retail businesses getting that food to people. These aren't isolated bets on individual companies. They're pieces of the same system. What that means in practice is that we're now connected to a network of founders and operators who are working on the same problem from different angles. We hope to build genuine relationships across that portfolio over time - shared learnings, useful introductions, and maybe more. That's the kind of value that's hard to put a number on, and it's another reason the right investor mattered.
What's next
This gives us the runway to move faster - on the product, on the team, and on the geography we serve. There's a lot on the bigger picture roadmap that's been sat in a queue. That can now change.
If you're a grower, independent retailer or food producer thinking about how you run your box scheme or subscription business - in the UK or elsewhere in Europe - we'd love to talk.
And if you work in food systems, agri-tech, or regenerative agriculture and you think there might be a conversation worth having, we are keen to connect. Openness, transparency and collaboration will be central to how we, as a collective, change our food system for the better.
Steve
steve@growing-good.co.uk
Co-founder, Growing Good Technology Ltd