Personalised dogfood challenger Years has agreed a multimillion-pound investment deal as consumer demand for premium and health-focused petcare products continues to boom.
Consumer investment firms Verlinvest and Five Seasons Ventures took a significant minority stake in the rapidly growing brand to support a retail and international expansion plan.
Headquartered in Nottingham, Years was founded by Darren Beale and Ivan Barashki in 2023 to offer dog owners a range of fresh and minimally processed whole foods.
It developed a proprietary ‘Cupboard Fresh’ product that allows ambient distribution and 18 months of shelf life for meals made using fresh and premium ingredients.
Since launching as a DTC brand, Years has shipped more than 12 million personalised meals to customers, with each meal tailored to a dog’s weight, age and nutritional profile. It also has a growing retail presence thanks to nationwide listings with Pets at Home for the range of meals, bone broths, meal toppers and treats.
Years plans to use the VC investment to accelerate its UK retail rollout, boost manufacturing capacity and expand into Continental Europe, with an initial focus on Benelux.
“We founded Years to challenge the assumption that fresh petfood must come with logistical compromises,” Beale said. “By combining research-backed nutritional quality with ambient convenience, we’ve created a new category that resonates with modern pet owners. With Verlinvest and Five Seasons Ventures as partners, we’re positioned to accelerate our mission across Europe.”
Barashki added: “That proposition is resonating well beyond the fresh feeding community, with 66% of our subscribers previously feeding their dogs kibble or wet food, meaning we are successfully redefining how pet owners approach their pets’ nutrition. With Verlinvest and Five Seasons Ventures behind us, we can take another giant step towards our mission of giving dog owners more years together with their dogs.”
Beale and Barashki remain as shareholders in the business following the deal, with Verlinvest and Five Seasons Ventures taking seats on the board.
Verlinvest managing director Ben Black said: “We are delighted to partner with Darren, Ivan and the Years team to accelerate their mission of bringing nutritionally complete, fresh food in a scalable, convenient, ambient format to a wider audience. We are excited for them to join our extensive premium pet portfolio, which started over 10 years ago with our investment in Chewy.com, and support their creation of the Cupboard Fresh category on an international basis.”
Ivan Farneti, Five Seasons Ventures co-founder and managing partner, said: “At Five Seasons Ventures, we have backed several successful dog and catfood brands and were early believers in the shift towards fresh pet nutrition and subscription models. We see Years as the natural next evolution of this category.
“By combining the nutritional benefits of fresh food with the convenience of ambient storage, Years is making premium pet nutrition accessible to a much broader consumer base while enabling true omnichannel distribution through both direct-to-consumer and retail channels. We believe Years has the potential to become one of the defining brands in the next generation of pet nutrition.”
Verlinvest has more than €2.5bn in assets under management and backs consumer businesses from early stage through to large scale, and it counts the likes of Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Mutti and Who Gives a Crap among its portfolio.
Paris-headquartered Five Seasons Ventures has invested in more than 25 companies since launching in 2018, with exits secured for petfood brand Butternut Box to private equity, Just Spices to Kraft Heinz and Yfood to Nestlé.
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