Executive Summary

• Freshprep saw ordering food online had increased during the pandemic and wanted to take advantage of this consumer behaviour
• Freshprep attempted to garner grants internally but was denied, twice. 
• Granted was able to secure ~300k in grant funding within the first year which helped Freshprep expand across Canada.

Intro

Freshprep is a meal box company whose goal is to help busy people answer the question “what’s for dinner?” Started in 2014 by three friends and based in Vancouver, Freshprep has now expanded Canada-wide and now has over 300 employees.

Coming out of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the world was now used to ordering everything online, and meals were no exception. Freshprep saw this change in consumer behaviour and was ready to pounce and expand. They just needed to figure out how to fund and execute their plan. 

Goals

Freshprep wasn’t just a food company, but also, in a way, a tech company. Their app and technology systems were a big part of their competitive advantage. As a result, they not only needed to hire chefs, and food industry professionals, but they also needed to hire technology and app developers. 

Hiring technology professionals was especially challenging as Freshprep needed to compete for talent in a city where SAP, Microsoft and Amazon also had large offices. 

Grant Challenges

Freshprep was aware of various grants that would allow help partially fund their activities. However, when they attempted to secure grant funding, they were denied – twice. 

Frustrated with the process and the lost effort, Freshprep turned to the professionals at Granted to get assistance with securing grant funding. 

Granted

Granted was hired in 2021 to assist with the grant process for Freshprep. After a kickoff call and a strategy session, Granted researched possible grants that fit Freshprep’s business goals.

After a thorough search, many grants were found to be a good fit. Granted then proceeded to help Freshprep apply, manage, claim and report on a variety of grants that fit their growth strategy.

Result

From April 2021 to April 2022, Granted was able secure approximately $300k in grant funding for hiring and market expansion. 

This allowed Freshprep to hire for a variety of different talent areas including, Tech and App Developers, Cooks, Business Analysts, and Warehouse Managers. In fact, Freshprep was hiring new employees on a weekly basis to be able to grow across Canada. 

The best part is that the HR department at Freshprep no longer needed to manage any of the administrative duties of receiving and reporting on grants.