Food start-up Sessions toasts Guinness backing in £7.5m fundraising

A start-up which provides burgeoning talent from Britain’s food industry with a platform to sell its products has raised $10m (£7.4m) to fuel its expansion.

Sky News understands that Sessions, which operates a successful chef-led food hall on Brighton’s seafront, will announce this week that it has secured the Series-A funding from a syndicate of investors led by Guinness Asset Management.

The funding is a major boost to Sessions and its founders – who include former Deliveroo executive Dan Warne – and comes even as soaring COVID infections caused by the Omicron variant undermine the hospitality sector’s recovery from the pandemic.

Alongside former Soho House finance chief Ian Banks, Mr Warne set up Sessions in 2019, opening its Brighton venue later that year.

Image: Jon Moulton’s Perscitus vehicle was another participant in the funding round

The business works with food brands such as Lost Boys Chicken, SoBe Burger and Ox Block, which was set up by former Masterchef winner Kenny Tutt, and works with more than 50 kitchens around the country to produce food from the brands it counts as partners.

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It provides chef partners with both physical and virtual spaces to market and sell their brands, and positions itself as a platform to aid the growth of Britain’s independent food scene.

“Our purpose is to be a voice for the independents, championing change and empowerment, and it’s great to see our new partners entirely bought into that mission,” Mr Warne said.

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Perscitus, the family office of Jon Moulton, the prominent financier, also participated in the funding round.

Sessions is chaired by the leisure industry veteran Graham Turner, who previously led the restaurant operator Tragus Group, and bar and nightclub chain Novus Leisure.

The new capital will be used to expand Sessions’ roster of chefs and open another two food halls this year.

It also plans to launch an incubator called Sessions Studio which is “designed to pair aspiring founders with world-class culinary support”.

Ashley Abrahams, an executive at Guinness Asset Management, said: “True disruptors in the hospitality sector, the hybrid physical and digital model of Sessions is of intense interest to us, and we’re looking forward to watching the partnership between Sessions and Guinness grow.”