Griddle waffles

Griddle claimed its new range of frozen plant-based waffles as a UK first

Bakery brand Griddle has closed a £400k seed funding round ahead of a retail expansion in the UK and overseas.

Launched by former Vita Coco and Pip & Nut employees Sophie McGregor and Ella Harland in 2019, the business recently expanded its offering from pancakes to frozen plant-based waffles, which it claimed as a UK first.

Griddle, which also produces waffle and pancake mixes, is already stocked by Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Selfridges.

The seed funding will be used to fuel the growth of the new waffle range into Morrisons, Dunnes in Ireland and Ocado, as well as foodservice accounts across three national distributors in the second quarter.

The business is also planning to grow the team and support marketing efforts to drive consumer awareness.

“We’ve spent the last two years really building the foundations to scale the business and we’re now in a position to execute,” McGregor said.

“Our waffles have had such a great reception in the market, and we’re excited to roll these out across retail and foodservice this year with multiple new accounts lined up.”

Harland added: “We’re also focusing our efforts on expanding our offering within frozen bakery, with lots of exciting NPD to come.

“Waffles are truly underserved in the UK, the market for toaster waffles is worth over $2.6bn in the US, yet all we have here are highly processed ambient products that disintegrate in the toaster and go stale 24 hours after opening them. We really believe we can disrupt this market and become a global leading brand in frozen bakery products.”