FEATURE21 June 2018

Relishing a challenge: How data science informs Gousto’s business model

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UK recipe-box company Gousto has put insights at the centre of understanding what people want to eat, using data to launch new ranges and predict what recipes will tickle customers’ tastebuds. By Katie McQuater.

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A decade ago, if you wanted to have dinner delivered to you in the comfort of your own home, you would have been limited to whatever takeaway restaurants were in the vicinity – and the chances are, they wouldn’t offer particularly healthy choices. For that, you’d have to head to the supermarket to buy fresh ingredients, consult a cookery book, and do it yourself. But what if you could bypass the first two steps? 

Today, rapid disruption in the grocery sector, driven by advances in technology and consumer desire for convenience and wellbeing, has resulted in an alternative to supermarket food shopping – the rise of the cook-at-home meal kit. 

UK recipe box subscription service Gousto was founded in 2012 by Timo Boldt and his then partner James Carter. Though he loved food and cooking, Boldt found he had little time with his career as a hedge fund manager to cook, and when he did, he was wasting a ...