Welcome to Back or Bolt, a newsletter highlighting what is happening in the world of early-stage investing/crowdfunding. I’ll provide a curated list of what’s new in the crowdfunding space around the world and one deep dive into a company of interest, then it is up to you if you decide to BACK OR BOLT!
The DEEP DIVE - FREDA 🍕 v Sunday Supper 🍝
This week, we are going to put to bed the age old argument, which is the better italian cuisine, lasagne or pizza? Two companies from both sides are targeting the italian frozen food market in different ways, which one will come out on (the cheese covered) top?
The Good ✅
FREDA 🍕
€13.4M revenue in 2026 (3.1x growth YoY), growing from €0.2M at launch in August 2023, which is a significant increase over a short period.
Rated #1 frozen pizza by Stiftung Warentest, a German consumer goods and services investigator.
National listing at Kaufland (780 stores) and BILLA Austria (60 stores), with REWE, Lidl, Edeka, and Netto in the pipeline. The Kaufland launch alone hit €500k monthly revenue.
Creator-led marketing model where influencers are also investors and co-creators - Stefano Zarrella (2.5M Instagram), Fitness Oskar (2.5M TikTok), Healthy Mandy (1.3M TikTok). This is generating organic reach without listing fees or traditional advertising spend.
Co-founder Philipp Kraiss founded mymuesli and took it to a successful exit, giving him a directly transferable playbook for building and scaling a food brand across multiple channels.
Backed by institutional food VCs: Atlantic Food Labs, Graphit NeoTaste, Combination Ventures, plus Kagan Sümer (founder of Gorillas - a grocery delivery service) as a strategic angel.
Pre-money valuation of €16.5M - roughly 1.2x 2026 revenue, which is modest for a brand growing at this rate with proven retail traction.
Plans to expand into Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and the UK through 2030, targeting €103M revenue.
EBITDA profitability targeted for 2026, with full profitability from 2027.
Sunday Supper 🍝
Their plant-based lasagna went viral when Billie Eilish (125M followers) sent it to 250 friends, helping boost brand awareness and cultural relevancy.
650+ retail doors already including The Fresh Market, Albertsons, GIANT, and Central Market, with 4 new SKUs confirmed for Whole Foods Market.
Mozza Fritto selling 6x more units per week than the category average - a strong signal that indicates potential retail longevity.
Backed by notable investors: Ryan Bethencourt (CEO Wild Earth, co-founder IndieBio), actress Daniella Monet, and ProVeg International.
Founded by repeat operators with successful food brand exits - Spencer Oberg (Good Planet Foods founding team), Richard Klein (founded and sold Surface Magazine), and Florian Radke (co-founded Cinnaholic, grew franchise business via Shark Tank).
Operating in the $60B US frozen food aisle, targeting a category that's growing but dominated by legacy brands that are ripe for disruption.
The Bad 🚩
FREDA 🍕
The revenue projection (€103M by 2030) requires near-flawless retail execution across multiple new countries simultaneously - a significant operational lift for a team of 8 full-time employees.
Limited shelf space in the frozen food section means delistings happen fast if sales drop.
There is currently a concentration risk on pizza as the main category. The frozen pizza market is promotion-driven and dominated by Dr. Oetker and Nestlé/Wagner, who have greater resources for trade spend and pricing battles.
Sunday Supper 🍝
The financials reveal a company that hasn't found viable unit economics yet. A -6% gross margin at this stage indicates either the product is priced too low, the manufacturing costs are too high, or both. An expected margin would be between 30-40%.
Pivoted to retail after 3 months of DTC, which while supposedly a smarter move hasn’t translated into any meaningful growth or margins.
Debt ratio of 105% meaning liabilities are greater than assets. Cash sits are $132k, and an FY25 loss of $132k this indicates a short cash runway, hence the need to raise capital. This is after raising over $400k in 2025, indicating they’ve already burned through those funds.
The plant-based frozen market is crowded and has seen high-profile stumbles - Amy's Kitchen, Tattooed Chef, and others have struggled with margin compression and distribution pullback despite strong early momentum.
The team's prior exits (Cinnaholic franchise, Surface Magazine) are impressive but not directly analogous to scaling a frozen CPG brand to national distribution in a competitive retail environment.
Unlike FREDA, there's no institutional VC or food-specialist investor listed - notable angel names but no one with deep frozen food retail expertise on the cap table.
Back or bolt?
⚡Two brands, one category, but vastly different risk profiles.
FREDA is the more compelling investment case of the two. The revenue is real, the retail traction is proven, the co-founder has done this before with a food brand, and the institutional investors know the space. At €16.5M pre-money against €13.4M 2026 revenue and 3x YoY growth, you're not being asked to overpay. The risks are around execution and whether an 8-person team manage a multi-country retail rollout while maintaining quality and shelf velocity.
Sunday Supper on the other hand has its own strengths, including the Billie Eilish moment and the upcoming launch of 4 SKUs in Whole Foods. These are both vital steps on the pathway to success, especially the free celebrity brand exposure. Unfortunately the current structure seems to indicate a business in trouble, with negative margins and a low cash runway. This may be a significant cause for concern as similar products, backed by high-profile people, haven’t been able to create retail success in this space. The low margins (-6%) and low revenues ($180k in FY24 and FY25) when compared to FREDA (€13.4M revenue at a 40% contribution margin with expected EBITDA profitability in FY26) shows two businesses at different ends of the growth spectrum, one is supercharged while the other is stalling.
If I had to choose one: FREDA would get a back (however I am not going to take part in this round) while Sunday Supper gets a bolt (this is my personal view and not investment advice).
The Round Up 🌏
These are also on my radar this week. If you’d like me to analyse any of these in a future Deep Dive, be sure to let me know.
United Kingdom/Europe 🇬🇧 🇪🇺
Plum - London, UK | Fintech / Wealth Tech | AI-powered smart money app for saving & investing | 1.1M active customers, £3.1bn AUM, £34M ARR, operationally profitable Jan 2026, backed by Eurobank | £250M pre-money valuation | £45.09 per share
Pip & Nut - London, UK | Food & Beverage / FMCG | Natural, palm oil-free nut butters and snacks (B-Corp certified) | 15.8% UK nut butter market share, 1.6M households, 33% annual growth 2023–24 | Secondary sale | £72.1M implied valuation | £36.67 per share
Minor Figures - London, UK | Food & Beverage / Plant-Based | B-Corp barista oat milk and RTD coffees, available in 40+ countries | #1 dollar & unit growth in US shelf-stable plant-based milk, 10,000+ specialty coffee shops, backed by Danone Manifesto Ventures | Secondary sale | £165.4M implied valuation | £7.31 per share
The Sardar Co - West Midlands, UK | Consumer Goods / Men's Grooming | Premium natural beard care rooted in Sikh heritage | ~£100k revenue (FY2024), profitable, DTC + Amazon + wholesale | £850K pre-money valuation | £8.50 per share | EIS eligible
Goldwise - London, UK | Fintech / Alternative Assets | Fractional physical precious metals trading app (gold, silver, platinum, palladium) | Pre-revenue, live iOS app, founded by ex-Royal Mint executives, Development Bank of Wales backed | £3.67M pre-money valuation | £100 per share | EIS eligible | £90.5k raised of £1M target | Min. £100
Tempty Foods - Copenhagen, Denmark | Food & Beverage | Mycelium-powered food products (non-meat-imitation) | 100% YoY revenue growth, 250k+ meals served, live in 7-Eleven DK & SE | €3.2M pre-money valuation | €65.30 per share | Min. €65.30
Smacks - Croydon, UK | Food & Beverage / QSR | Viral UK burger & hot chicken franchise brand | 14 stores, £7.1M franchise turnover, 37% annual growth, EBITDA £165k, 27M viral views | £15M pre-money valuation | £15 per share | Min. £30
Thermify - Cowbridge, UK | CleanTech / SaaS | Domestic data centres that replace gas boilers with waste-heat warming | 1 live installation, £2.5M contracted revenue (100 HeatHubs), £337k raised of £500k target | £15.1M pre-money valuation | £10 per share | Min. £20
Airponix - Cambridge, UK | AgriTech | Soil-free fog technology for seed potato production | £1.4M Saudi facility delivered, trials with PepsiCo & Dyson Farming, £386k raised of £450k target | £6.5M pre-money valuation | £5.65 per share | Min. £22.60
Jiva Materials - Waterlooville, UK | Deep Tech / CleanTech | Natural PCB laminates replacing fibreglass in electronics | Logitech & HP validation underway, UL94 V-0 certified, £290k revenue 2025, £669k raised (101% funded) | £8.9M pre-money valuation | £3.345 per share | Min. £33.45
United States 🇺🇸
VAWAA - New York, USA | B2C Marketplace | Mini-apprenticeships with master artists globally | 210+ artists, 42 countries, +50.4% YoY growth, $0 raised of $550k goal (testing waters) | $25M valuation cap (SAFE) | Min. $1,000
Dividends - St. Louis, USA | Fintech / SaaS | AI-powered platform for investing in profitable internet businesses | 45,000+ subscriber audience, pre-revenue | Min. $100
Olia Olive Leaf Tea - San Antonio, USA | Food & Beverage / Health | World's first RTD olive leaf iced tea | 14-month Central Market pilot (+170% sales growth) | Min. $100
Polymarket - New York, USA | Fintech / Prediction Markets | Decentralised prediction market platform (blockchain-based) | $10.6B monthly trading volume (Mar 2026), $600M investment from ICE (NYSE parent), X's official prediction market partner | Secondary (Pre-IPO) | ~£11.1B implied valuation | £111 per share (Series B Preferred)
Ramp - New York, USA | Fintech / B2B SaaS | AI-native corporate spend management platform (cards, expenses, bill pay) | $1B+ ARR, 153% YoY profit growth, 50,000+ business customers, $32B valuation (Nov 2025), backed by Founders Fund & Visa | Secondary (Pre-IPO) | ~£23.7B implied valuation | £91 per share (Series A-1 Preferred)
Australia/New Zealand 🇦🇺 🇳🇿
Nothing to report this week, however there are some interesting businesses (AI tax assistant and a recycling platform) on the horizon that will be perfect for future editions of the newsletter.
The Scorecard:
Backs: 1 - Bolts: 5 (+2 this week)
The Fund:
That’s all for now, gotta bolt and get back to it! ⚡
DISCLAIMER - This newsletter is not financial advice, and should not be used as such. It is for information purposes only. Every investment has risks and you should do your own due diligence or discuss with a financial advisor before investing. Early-stage investing is higher risk and you may lose everything you put in. It is also highly illiquid, meaning your investment is not easily accessible if you need the funds at short notice.