Sessions, a food brand licensing platform, has raised £3.25 million in funding from Virgin Money. The company plans to use the funds to further develop its technology, as well as to acquire and scale more food brands. Sessions has experienced rapid growth, achieving over £47 million in annualised sales in less than three years of operation, with more than 300% growth in the latest quarter. This funding round follows a £8.1 million Series A round closed in 2022.
The Sessions platform identifies promising food brands and accelerates their growth by launching them in existing kitchens. Unlike dark kitchen models, Sessions takes a multi-channel approach to licensing, making its brands available on delivery platforms and in physical venues, allowing for greater consumer reach.
Founder Dan Warne stated, “To raise this round with such a great team at Virgin is testament to the significant growth we’ve achieved across the past 12 months, while radically improving profitability. It also marks a line in the sand for us to inject clear purpose and energy into our biggest growth lever – licensing and scaling brands through our tech platform.”
Sessions attributes its growth to two key principles: supporting genuine, authentic food concepts from passionate founders and anchoring those concepts in the physical world to build brand equity more quickly than relying solely on delivery.
Mark Cook, Head of Venture Debt at Virgin, commented, “Virgin Money Venture Debt is delighted to have completed a £3.25m funding package with Sessions, a leading B2C technology company with a capital efficient physical and digital food platform. Sessions has an innovative asset light food licensing and franchising model which in essence helps chef founders rapidly test, incubate and scale their creations in an authentic way. We warmly welcome Dan Warne (CEO), Ian Banks (CFO) and all the Sessions team to our portfolio of fast growing technology companies.”
The funding will be used to support further growth in licensing, as Sessions shifts away from large capital expenditure projects with high operational intensity, such as additional food halls. Shelter Hall, where the company started, has achieved record revenues and profits over the past 12 months and remains a vital content engine for Sessions. More than a third of the brands launched at Shelter Hall have gone on to grow within the wider Sessions network, with some expanding to physical franchises.
