Tech

This 15-slide pitch deck persuaded food giant Ecotone to buy an organic soup startup

Little Lunch is an online store that sells ready-made organic soups and sauces.
Its investors included two members from “Die Höhle der Löwen,” the German version of “Dragons’ Den.”
In 2020, Allos Hof-Manufaktur, part of the Ecotone group, purchased 100% of the business.

This is an edited, translated version of an article that originally appeared on May 2, 2022.

In 2015, brothers Denis and Daniel Gibisch presented their company, Little Lunch — an online store that sells ready-made soups and sauces — on the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen,” the German version of the reality investment show “Dragons’ Den.”

The brothers managed to get two of the show’s investors — Frank Thelen and Judith Williams — to invest. They invested a combined 150,000 euros for a 30% stake in the company.

In the years that followed, the startup from Augsburg, Germany, grew into a million-dollar company.

Denis said that Thelen was invaluable in helping them build the company. He showed them how to build a good online shop and introduced them to important contacts in food retailing that helped get the ready-made soups into supermarkets, Denis said.

Williams, a TV entrepreneur, then promoted the products on television, the brothers said, helping Little Lunch become a well-known brand across Germany.

In October 2020, the Gibisch brothers announced they were selling 100% of the company to the organic food producer Allos Hof-Manufaktur, which is part of the Ecotone group. The Gibisch brothers said they held just under 50% of the shares in their company, before their exit.

Daniel told the Insider podcast “So geht Startup” that the company had been looking for a buyer for two years.

Insider has an exclusive copy of the 15-slide pitch deck that the founders used to sell their company.

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