Dutch startup TommyTomato bags €1.9M to get 50,000+ children to eat a vegetable lunch this year | Silicon Canals

Haarlem-based TommyTomato, a company on a mission to turn children into vegetable eaters for life, announced on Wednesday, April 24, that it has secured €1.9M in growth funding from Stichting LifeTree Fund, DOEN Participaties, and Social Impact Fund Rotterdam.

The Dutch company will use the funds to expand its operations from Randstad to other cities in the Netherlands, including Eindhoven and Rotterdam. 

Additionally, the funds will be used to invest in further automation and expansion of the team. 

 ‘We are extremely pleased to have these financiers on board and to work with them on the transition towards Steward Owned and the next phase of growth. The beet is on!’ says founder Erik van der Plas.

TommyTomato: Delivering hot lunches with vegetables

Bas Turk and Erik van der Plas, founders of TommyTomato, are both fathers of three children. They experienced how difficult it is to get children to eat enough vegetables. 

That is why they founded TommyTomato in 2020.

The Haarlem-based company does this by delivering hot lunches to elementary schools in the Netherlands, packed with vegetables. 

In this way, children are already getting 60 to 100 per cent of the

recommended daily intake of vegetables. The starting point is that the elementary school is only the place and has no additional work on the lunch. 

The company says the lunch is presented in a fun and educational way, helping children learn to appreciate vegetables and have fun eating them. 

Since its inception, the Dutch company has delivered more than 1.5 million lunches to primary schools, and last year, it grew by 600 per cent. 

The meals are vegetarian, varied, and packed with vegetables. The lunches are delivered by 70 Health Angels.

Additionally, TommyTomato offers jobs to marginalised individuals, promoting a more sustainable and socially inclusive world. 

The DOEN Foundation and the Postcode Lottery Fund have been supporting the company since 2021, with the LifeTree Fund Foundation joining in 2022. 

Social Impact Fund Rotterdam is a new investor and knowledge partner.

TommyTomato is registered with the Social Business Code and thus safeguards the mission of turning all children – not just the happy few – into vegetable

TommyTomato is now being delivered from two hubs, located in Haarlem and Utrecht. A new hub in The Hague will be added in March, and by the end of 2024, TommyTomato aims to expand to five hubs. 

Currently, the service supplies 49 locations around the existing hubs. 

The company claims that elementary school children have already consumed over 100,000 kilos of vegetables through the service.