Dive Brief:

• Misfits Market has closed a $225 million Series C-1 funding round, pushing the amount the company has raised since its founding to $526.5 million, according to a press release on Tuesday.
• The e-grocer plans to use the additional capital to boost the number of products it offers and expand across the United States.
• After achieving unicorn status in April, Misfits' valuation has now roughly doubled to $2 billion as it rapidly scales its efforts to secure and distribute food that might otherwise have been earmarked for disposal.

Dive Insight:

Misfits has been on a growth tear in recent months, fueled by robust consumer interest in its sustainability-focused approach to selling groceries.

The company, which currently serves customers in 43 states, has been aggressively working to increase the breadth of products it sells and has doubled its selection during the past four months. In addition, Misfits recently added proteins to its assortment, and over the last 10 weeks has delivered over 100,000 pounds of chicken, 48,000 pounds of steak and 34,000 pounds of salmon, according to the funding announcement. The online food delivery company is now focused on building what it says will be "a complete online grocery platform."

“We've been laser-focused on building our food value supply chain and this capital infusion enables us to deploy it nationwide and continue realizing our vision for a better grocery experience," Abhi Ramesh, founder and CEO of Misfits, said in a statement. "Shoppers have responded, and proven there is a market and an appetite for online grocery platforms that makes quality food accessible and affordable."

Japanese investment firm SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, which has also invested in autonomous checkout technology developers Standard and Trax, led the investment round in Misfits. Accel, which led an April $200 million Series C round of investment in Misfits that at the time pushed the New Jersey-based company’s value past the $1 billion mark, also participated in Misfits' latest funding arrangement.

Founded in 2018, Misfits has built its business by promoting access to fresh, healthy food while also preventing items like oddly shaped produce from being sent to landfills. As part of its effort to keep food from being wasted, Misfits has also directed attention to projects designed to find a use for leftover food from the production of items like snack bars.

In a sign of its growth, Misfits redirected more food during the first four months of 2021 than it did in all of 2020, Ramesh wrote in a company blog post in April.