Spoon Cereals raises £1.5m led by Finance Yorkshire
This article covers Spoon Cereals, a foodtech startup, which has raised £1.5m in a seed funding round led by Finance Yorkshire and in December 2025 acquired an 11,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Yorkshire. The funding will be used to optimise the new manufacturing site, support additional retail listings and fund co‑branded and licensed product launches, supporting the startup's shift to owned production and affecting retailers, investors and the UK foodtech sector.
Spoon Cereals, a foodtech startup best known for its award-winning, taste-led granola, has raised £1.5m in a seed funding round led by Finance Yorkshire. The money will be used to optimise its newly acquired Yorkshire manufacturing site, support additional retail listings and fund co-branded and licensed product launches with Wildfarmed and Myprotein slated for 2026 — moves that shift the business from a branded reseller to an owner-operator in production.
Why it matters
The deal highlights a practical shift in the UK food sector: investors are valuing brands that control production as a way to de-risk supply chains and open licensing or private-label opportunities. Spoon’s move to in-house manufacturing could shorten lead times, reduce reliance on external co-packers and make partnerships with larger suppliers and retailers more straightforward to execute.
For investors, the combination of retail momentum and manufacturing ownership offers clearer paths to margin improvement and growth. For the wider market, it is a reminder that mid-sized food brands are increasingly leaning into operational control as a route to expansion.
Inside the product
Spoon has spent the past decade building a granola range that mixes taste credentials with an explicit sustainability focus. The brand has won multiple Great Taste Awards and is stocked in more than 1,250 UK retail locations, including Waitrose, Morrisons and Ocado, where it is reported to be the fastest-growing granola brand. Internationally, Spoon is present in over 500 Migros supermarkets in Switzerland.
In December 2025 the company acquired an 11,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Yorkshire, transitioning from an outsourced model to owned production. That operational shift underpins the planned product activity for 2026: co-branded and licensed lines with Wildfarmed and Myprotein, plus wider retail roll-outs.
The business is chaired by Justin Cook, former CEO of Müller Yoghurts & Desserts UK, and has appointed FMCG growth specialist Simon Hazlett as managing director.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Finance Yorkshire with participation from Angel Investment Network (AIN) alongside existing and new investors. The company says the funding package will be applied to manufacturing optimisation, licensing launches and supporting new retail listings.
Spoon has also received recognition in the region: it was shortlisted for Deal of the Year (sub £10m) at Insider's South Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards 2026 in relation to a cited £2m investment by Finance Yorkshire, and shortlisted in The Grocer Gold Awards Supply Chain Initiative of the Year category.
In the announcement, Alexander Caparros, Senior Broker at Angel Investment Network, said:
Spoon Cereals is a brand with genuine consumer love, award-winning products, and a business that has just gone through a real step-change with the shift to owned manufacturing. Our investors recognised the quality of the team, the proven retail traction, and the signed licensing deals with Myprotein and Wildfarmed as a clear path to scale.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of foodtech venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of foodtech angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, Jonny Shimmin, Co-founder and CEO at Spoon Cereals, said:
Spoon was born from our love of breakfast and the desire to make it better. Bringing manufacturing in-house has been transformational – it has de-risked our supply chain and opened up licensing opportunities that simply were not possible before. With the backing of AIN's investors alongside Finance Yorkshire, we have the capital and the platform to scale and build a genuinely purpose-led cereals brand that can compete at the top of the category. Annie Morris co-founded the business alongside Shimmin and remains part of the leadership team as Spoon executes its next phase of growth.
The bigger picture
Spoon’s raise and its factory acquisition exemplify a broader theme in UK and European foodtech: investors are backing brands that move beyond marketing-led growth to strengthen operations and supply chains. That approach can make partnerships with retailers and nutrition-focused platforms like Myprotein more commercially viable.
The deal also underlines continued investor appetite for consumer food brands that combine proven retail distribution with a clear strategy for manufacturing and licensing. As UK food companies expand into co-branded products and new export markets, moves like Spoon’s will be watched closely by both investors and incumbent grocery customers.
They've invested in Spoon Cereals
Get to know these foodtech investors
| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Finance Yorkshire( ) Finance Yorkshire provides funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ... Barnsley  | ||||
| All investors | All investor sectors | All funded startups | All funding rounds |
Click here for a full list of 7,589+ startup investors in the UK