Everything You Need To Know About Blue Apron, The Meal Kit Service That Just Filed To Go Public

Blue Apron filed on Thursday for its initial public offering. The company sells a meal kit delivery product that delivers weekly pre-portioned meals with accompanied recipes and instructions. Pricing starts at $8.99 per serving and includes free delivery with no commitments and the option to cancel at any time.

Blue Apron was founded in 2012 to give customers a solution to a "burdensome, time consuming, and expensive" shopping experience at grocery stores. The company's mission is to provide a better cooking experience that includes only the required items in order to reduce overall waste.

"Our core product is the cooking experience we help our customers create," the company said in its regulatory filing. "Central to these experiences are the original recipes we design and send along with fresh, seasonal ingredients directly to our customers."

By eliminating the middlemen (such as grocery stores) the company is able to directly sell to the consumer which helps drive costs down. Blue Apron says it is able to reach over 99 percent of the entire U.S. population.

The company intends to use the capital raised from the IPO to repay a portion of outstanding debt, for working capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes. Blue Apron may also use a portion of the proceeds to finance an acquisition, although there are currently no deals in the pipeline.

Competitors to Blue Apron include Hello Fresh, Peach Dish, Plated, Home Chef, Purple Carrot, according to a 2016 Observer review of meal kit delivery companies.

The Numbers

Revenue for 2014, 2015 and 2016 totaled $77.8 million, $340.8 million and $795.5 million, respectively. This represents an impressive 338-percent growth rate from 2014 to 2015 and a growth rate of 133 percent from 2015 to 2016.

For the quarters ending March 31, 2016, and March 31, 2017, the company generated $172.1 million and $244.8 million in revenue, respectively. This represents a growth rate of 42 percent.

In the years ended December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, Blue Apron incurred net losses of $(30.8) million.

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