Wylde has reached more than 180% of its £175,000 crowdfunder target
Wylde is putting Real Food back on the UK’s dining tables, filling a gap created by the UK’s “broken” food distribution system
Wylde runs the UK’s online farmers’ market, connecting the UK’s best independent food producers with consumers across England, Wales and Scotland 13/3/25, Twickenham, London: Wylde Market, the online farmers’ market, has smashed its crowdfunder target. The crowdfunder, seeking £175,000 went live on Valentine’s Day. It hit its target within hours and raised £312,661 when the round ended on March 9.
Wylde was launched in September 2023 by entrepreneurs Nick Jefferson, 48, and Ella Cooper, 29, with a mission to revolutionise the UK’s food distribution system by making the country’s best regenerative, organic and biodynamic produce available by direct delivery to consumers nationwide. And all in one box.
The company works with scores of farmers, fishermen, foragers, hunters, artisan producers, brewers, bakers, wine importers and many more. All the produce is of the highest quality. Wylde lists food and drink on its online marketplace and delivers aggregated customer orders anywhere in Great Britain, apart from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
“Our business plan is simple,” said Jefferson. “We want to put Real Food back on Britain’s dinner tables.”
“We have fantastic food in the United Kingdom,” said Jefferson, “but the food distribution system is totally broken. London is well served by farmers’ markets and independent food shops, but as soon as you get outside of the M25, the situation becomes more complicated. Consumers are heavily reliant on supermarkets which all sell pretty much the same things, regardless of season, weather or geography.”
“Wylde solves that. We are a single, national farmers’ market, sourcing the best food and drink from the best producers across the UK, and making it available nationwide. With Wylde everybody can have access to the best Britain has to offer, in one shopping basket.”
As the business holds no stock and, at its core, puts producers in touch with consumers and arranges delivery, it is highly scalable. 80% of sales are generated from outside of the M25.
Wylde plans to use the money generated by the crowdfunder for an aggressive customer acquisition campaign.
“When we started Wylde, we first thought that acquiring producers might be challenging,” said co-founder Cooper. “We were wrong. The UK has so many great food producers who would benefit from national distribution. We’re adding more of them all the time.”
“We know that when consumers try our producers’ food, they love it, because it is so good. So, we intend to get our brand in front of as many people as possible,” Cooper said.
The company plans to do this by kicking off a sponsorship campaign, leveraging social media, and running outdoor events.
“We are planning a series of Wylde Market pop-ups across the country,” said Jefferson. “We’re targeting once-thriving market towns that have become food black spots. We want to bring Real Food back to UK tables.”
The business launched to the public in September 2023 and has demonstrated strong growth. The number of producers on the market has more than tripled, from 20 at launch to more than 60 now. At launch, customers’ average order value was £55. It now stands at over £70. Meanwhile Wylde Market has already done a great job of reaching customers. A year after launch in September 2024, the business had 10,000 subscribers. That’s more than doubled to 25,000 today.