The Alice Anderson Fund, LaunchVic’s women-focused co-investment fund and Tractor Ventures co-founder Jodie Imam are among ReciMe’s backers, along with NZ VC Even Capital.
ReciMe started life as a lockdown project for sisters Christine and Ivy Nguyen and their best friend Will Kent. It was launched last November and has since grown by 50% monthly to a community of over 15,000 users.
The free ReciMe app allows anyone to share and discover recipes from family, friends and community.
The initial success saw the trio quit their full-time jobs at companies such as BCG earlier this year to focus on ReciMe and grow the team.
Christine Nguyen said the idea came about during the Melbourne 2020 pandemic lockdowns, when she cooking community.
“Before Ivy and me, our parents emigrated from Vietnam to Australia in the 90s, and their way of making sure we never lose touch with their homeland was to teach us how to cook and appreciate Vietnamese food,” she said. .
“During the lockdown, we first started writing down our family’s recipes – and when we wanted to share those recipes with our community, we realized that our publishing options were limited.”
While Nguyen loves cookbooks, she points out that they are not only expensive, but more complicated to navigate for a younger generation, and while online solutions like blogs, Instagram and TikTok build communities, they are not designed for sharing or consuming recipes.
“The more we looked at it, the more confident we felt that there is a real possibility of completely reinventing the online cooking experience,” she said.
Also for beginners
ReciMe focuses on two different target groups; the first are the less experienced cooks – those who often struggle with the question ‘what am I going to cook tonight?’,
“This is an almost universal problem for adults. Even as someone who is a somewhat skilled cook, I still find myself in needless pain over this question,” Nguyen said.
“We are here to fix that. As the platform’s recipes and user base grow, ReciMe can personalize the discovery experience on the app to ensure each recipe recommendation is fully tailored to a user’s preferences.”
Surprisingly, ReciMe’s second target audience is the recipe makers themselves, said Nguyen, of Michelin-starred chefs and enthusiastic home cooks – “like our mom” – can publish their recipes.
“As our platform has grown, we’ve realized we can take it one step further and empower anyone with great recipes to monetize their content as well — just like other creator-focused platforms like SubStack for writers,” said they.
“There is a big tailwind in the creator economy right now, where creators around the world are monetizing directly from their fans. We’ve talked to chefs who find it very difficult to earn a living these days – we’ve created a platform where they can sell premium content directly to their biggest fans.”
“Despite our start in Australia, we now have chefs from over 100 countries posting their favorite recipes. We envision a world where you can find recipes from great chefs around the world from the comfort of your own kitchen.”
LaunchVic CEO Dr. Kate Cornick said she was delighted that the $10 million Angel Sidecar Fund is supporting the 16th female-led startup.
“LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund is proud to support ambitious women like Christine and Ivy,” she said
“The capital they’ve raised from top angel investors will help refine ReciMe’s product offerings and fuel their long-term growth — something LaunchVic is targeting across all aspects of the Victorian startup sector.”
Sarah Park, co-founder of Even Capital, the only female-founded, funded and focused VC fund for growth stages, was also impressed by the ambition of the Nguyen sisters and Kent.
“The ability to connect cultures, cuisines and communities through simple and engaging technology has been hugely impressive to us, plus Ivy, Christine and Will’s dedication to putting their professional careers aside to focus on ReciMe full time, ” she said.
Jodie Imam echoed those sentiments.
“Their personal connection to this company and passion for how it ultimately connects families from generation to generation was immediately powerful,” she said.
“Having built a B2C marketplace of my own, I know that the drive, determination and magnetism will ultimately be the attributes that create success.”
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