- Social Chain subsidiary remains the largest shareholder alongside the founders after the latest funding round.
- Dr. Georg Kofler: "VYTAL will drive the reusable packaging business for delivery and take-away food as the market leader."
Berlin/Cologne, 11 February 2021. Second helping on a good deal for environment and company. Food Chain GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Social Chain AG WKN: A1YC99), is increasing its investment in VYTAL GmbH by EUR 300,000. VYTAL is the company behind an app-based multiple-use system for food packaging. Last year, Social Chain AG had already invested EUR 450,000 in VYTAL. The investment in the Cologne-based start-up had been secured by Dr. Georg Kofler, anchor shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board at Social Chain AG, as an investor in the VOX TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (Germany's equivalent of the UK‘s "Dragons' Den"). After the latest funding round with a total volume of over EUR 2 million, Food Chain remains VYTAL's largest shareholder (12.4%) alongside the founding team (69%).
Kofler: "VYTAL is on an excellent path. In a very short time, the start-up has established itself as a market leader for reusable food packaging. Social Chain AG and our Food Chain will continue to assist VYTAL as strategic partners. As an early investor, I will also personally continue to support the founders in every way possible."
The digital multiple use platform VYTAL offers high-quality, leak-proof food packaging for takeaway and delivery meals. VYTAL partners are restaurants, delivery services, canteens and supermarkets. VYTAL is free of charge for consumers. Once registered via the VYTAL app, they can then borrow and return containers from any partner. So far, VYTAL has already managed to win over 700 partners. VYTAL plans to use the new funds to invest in its drop-off and return network. The aim is to reduce the number of disposable containers by more than three million in 2021 through the VYTAL system. More information about VYTAL is available under vytal.org.
Dr. Tim Breker, co-founder and CEO of VYTAL: "We are very pleased about the extended involvement of Georg Kofler and Social Chain AG. Social Chain is one of the leading companies for social media marketing. With its integrative understanding of Social Commerce, Social Chain is the perfect partner to support us in our mission: Making reusable so easy and convenient to use with VYTAL that it becomes the packaging standard for sustainable takeaways and delivery meals."
The Social Commerce strategy of Food Chain GmbH:
Proprietary brands and food communities with a focus on direct sales to the end customer
Social Chain AG consolidates its food sector brands, communities and subsidiaries in the Food Chain GmbH. In addition to VYTAL, Food Chain GmbH currently holds shares in the following four companies: Clasen Bio (shareholding: 100%), KoRo (57%), 3Bears (15%) und Planty-of-Meat (10%).
Clasen Bio (clasen-bio.de) sells nuts, dried fruit, snacks, seeds, cereals, pulses, powders and special flours. Clasen Bio’s brand focuses on direct sales to end customers with currently around 85 articles in eight product groups. Clasen Bio has also been Demeter-certified since December 2019.
KoRo operates its own online shops for food in nine European countries (korodrogerie.de). The company focuses on high-quality products in bulk packaging with resulting cost savings for end customers. KoRo uses social media almost exclusively for marketing and is one of the pioneers of social commerce in the food sector.
3Bears produces and distributes innovative oat-based porridge products made from all-natural ingredients and superfoods (3bears.de). Over the past two years, 3Bears has established itself as a well-known and popular brand that can be found both online and on many supermarket shelves.
Planty-of Meat offers tasty, purely plant-based meat alternatives with sunflower seeds as a source of protein (planty-of-meat.de).
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The Social Chain AG: Social Commerce on a global scale
Social Chain AG is reshaping the world of brands and commerce. Our strategy and our actions are "Digital first – direct to customer": from branding to marketing to direct sales of our products in the categories Food, Home & Living, Beauty, and Fitness. Our online shops are the most efficient point of sales for our Direct-to-Consumer brands. More than 70 percent of Direct-to-Consumer sales are performed by our owned and operated online shops. Our communities, with over 86 million followers worldwide, inspire our customers and amplify our brand messages. We manage the expansion of our Social Commerce ecosystem of communities, brands and digital points of sale via our integrated proprietary technology platform: LINKS analyses interests, purchase intentions and product satisfaction along the entire digital customer journey.
The Social Chain AG‘s headquarters are in Berlin, with additional locations in Munich, London, Manchester, New York and San Diego. The company employs a total of around 500 people. The Social Chain AG shares are traded on XETRA and several German stock exchanges.
About VYTAL
VYTAL operates Germany's first digital and non-deposit multiple-use system with high-quality, leak-proof food packaging for takeaway and delivery meals. Customers register once in the VYTAL app or buy a VYTAL offline card and can use it to borrow freshly washed reusable bowls free of charge from any partner and return them after use. Processing is carried out digitally using the QR code on the VYTAL bowls. With the assistance of reminders, incentives, gamification and promotions, users are motivated to use and return the bowls regularly, thus maximising the economic and ecological added value of the system. With a return rate of over 98 percent and an average renting period of three days, VYTAL achieves better return rates than the German bottle return system. VYTAL partners are restaurants, canteens and supermarkets that use VYTAL reusable packaging in a pay-per-use model. VYTAL partners pay a commission for each food order as well as a fee per meal comparable to disposable packaging costs. VYTAL was founded in the summer of 2019 by Sven Witthöft (31) and Dr. Tim Breker (33) in Cologne. Dr Fabian Barthel (41) joined the team on 1 March 2020.
The content of this press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or other recommendations pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act by The Social Chain AG or its affiliated companies. The information provided cannot replace investment advice. The information contained in this press release is not to be construed as an assurance of possible price developments and should not be construed as a request to enter into a transaction. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell securities or rights, or a solicitation to trade in securities or rights. Accordingly, The Social Chain AG and its affiliates make no representations or commitments as to the accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information or opinions contained herein. We assume no liability for direct or indirect damages caused by and/or in connection with the distribution and/or use of this document. The statements correspond to the status at the time of the preparation of this document. They may become obsolete due to future developments without the document being changed.
