After hearing at the weekend that recipe kit delivery firm Gousto had received another £1.2 million funding we assumed things must be going well.
So we had a look back to tally the amount of investment it received so far since launch and came to around £2.5 million. From a standing start in August last year that's pretty good going.
Just as interesting is the implication of the big-business backers of the brand. After the last round of investment, a cool £1 million revealed at the end of August, Gousto tantalisingly admitted that 'executive directors in listed food companies' had piled in some funds.
Less than two weeks before, Gousto and Ocado had revealed a partnership to list the recipe kits on the home delivery service's web site.
Given Ocado chairman Sir Stuart Rose's flurry of investments in dot.com businesses in the past two years from contenders such as The Hut to much smaller businesses such as Duvet & Pillow Warehouse, can we reasonably assume he's thrown in some of his cash that is now falling from his growing non-executive money tree?
Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner's interest is also clear given his nurturing of the brand on his site (we doubt much happens at Ocado without it passing across Steiner's desk) so, perhaps, he's also taken a punt with his pal.
We doubt it would be any of the other supermarket bosses since the potential for conflict of interest is certainly evident (if not exactly cut and dry). But perhaps suppliers like Premier and ready meal-focused Greencore are also contenders.
Either way we will keep you updated...
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