Blue Apron gets ready for IPO listing

Blue Apron, the on-demand healthy food kit delivery startup, is getting ready for IPO listing in the US. The development came after the firm delayed its listing earlier and focused on improving its financial position. The startup had spent $144 million on marketing last year (~17% of its total operational spending). The company has been working to reduce the cost of acquiring customers, aligning that outlay more closely with the value of long-term subscribers. It is fighting in a cut throat highly competitive health food industry in US against competitors such as HelloFresh, Sun Basket and Amazon.

Founded in 2012, the food startup sends weekly boxes of pre-portioned ingredients with instructions for customers to cook meals at home. The company is trying to differentiate itself from others by selling superior products at compelling prices. However, this strategy comes at a price. As competition keeps the prices at bottom, the cost of acquiring and retaining subscribers have increased significantly. The marketing costs rose to about 20 percent of expenses in the first three months of this year, when the company saw a bump in both customers and orders.

The company filed for an IPO with initial offering size of $100 million. It plans to offer its Class A common stock and will have three classes of shares, two of them with voting rights, after the offering.