Exclusive: What started as a recipe planning app became a behavioural insights company that has tripled revenue in six months. Here’s how the founders of Appetise identified and capitalised on the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) opportunity.
Husband-and-wife founders Elise and Toby Hilliam are not new to the startup rodeo. Toby founded circular economy site Mutu in 2019, and a couple of years later, while under lockdown during the pandemic, the New Zealanders launched MenuAid.
They pivoted that business in 2024 and rebranded as Appetise. Seven years into the startup grind, the Hilliams hit on something big.
“Over the past six months, the business has tripled revenue, growing from $1.2 million to $3.5 million,” COO Elise Hilliam tells Forbes Australia in an exclusive interview.
Appetise changed its business model from charging consumers a subscription fee, to giving them free access to the platform and selling their aggregated data to information-hungry food companies like Heinz Australia and Lee Kum Kee.
“Appetise is pulling off the difficult feat of growing two entirely different products simultaneously; a genuinely helpful tool for making meals, and a platform that brands can make important business decisions with,” says Mason Bleakely, a principal with Icehouse Ventures, which just invested in the company.
The versatility of the Appetise business model and the rapid traction impressed Bleakely, as well as Ten13, NZVC, K1W1, OIF Ventures and Brand Fund, which also participated in the $7 million Series A round.
“Toby and Elise are the rare Swiss army founders who have the broad skillsets to make that work,” says Bleakely. “In under a year, they’ve established significant momentum in Australia, and the data moat they’re building is becoming their greatest asset.”
Uncovering Australian appetites
What the Australian momentum has revealed is a lucrative snapshot into FMCG consumer preferences. Appetise’s 110,000 active users comprise the single largest food and beverage insights panel in Australia, according to the company.
“We expected diversity, but not the strength of it,” says Elise Hilliam, when asked about takeaways derived from the data.
“Different regions show strong cultural food identities shaped by Greek, Lebanese, Italian, Indian, and multiple Asian cuisines. These are not surface-level influences. For example, recipes we initially thought were globally appealing, like souvlaki bowls, were actually too simplified for communities where those cuisines are part of everyday life.”
The 30-year-old Sports Nutrition graduate says Australian consumers are more focused on health outcomes than Kiwi users of the platform.
“Protein targets, fat content, calories, and macros play a much bigger role in recipe choice than we see in New Zealand. While NZ users talk about “healthy” in a general sense, Australians are far more specific and intentional about food aligning to fitness and nutrition goals,” says Elise Hilliam.
Price is also a differentiator between the two markets.
“Australians are value-driven, but value does not mean cheapest. Compared to New Zealand, price is less of a primary decision-maker,” she says.
“Shoppers are willing to spend more if a product delivers on quality, flavour, or experience. They are far more open to experimentation and mixing things up week to week, rather than defaulting to what’s on special.”
Pivoting and growing the customer base
These insights are particularly valuable because research panels in Australia traditionally survey just 18,000 users. In New Zealand, only 2,000 surveys are taken.
Since Appetise Insights launched its Aussie operation a year ago, 70 local brands have signed on to understand their customers better. The down under market now accounts for 70 per cent of the company’s growth.
One of those customers is Only Organic, Australia and New Zealand’s number one certified organic baby food brand, which retails in Woollies, Coles, IGA, and Chemist Warehouse. Another is oyster sauce pioneer Lee Kum Kee, which recently launched a new umami soy sauce, abalone sauce, and a sriracha chilli mayo.
“We are providing FMCG brands with live, behavioural data that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere,” says CEO Toby Hilliam. “To see revenue triple in six months proves that the industry was starving for these insights.”
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