• Domestic appliance company boosts its strategic growth field

• Expertise surrounding creative pleasures and healthy lifestyle further expanded

A fresh, healthy and sustainable cuisine is increasingly becoming an integral part of daily life for many people – with recipe ideas nowadays found above all online. In this respect, the KptnCook app provided by the eponymous Berlin startup counts among the fastest-growing offerings in the German-speaking world – with Miele holding a stake in the company since 2018. Now, the domestic appliance company from Gütersloh is increasing its stake in KptnCook to over 50%. The common goal is to further fuel the growth of this multiple award-winning app in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and beyond. Furthermore, greater personalisation of offers is planned.

KptnCook was founded in 2014 by Eva Hoefer and Alex Reeg, both of who still contribute to the enterprise with their expertise and spirit, and employs a staff of 37. The app supports users on a daily basis in preparing fresh and wholesome dishes in the shortest of times. This digital aid accompanies users on the journey from customised recipe inspiration to buying ingredients at the supermarket through to actually cooking dishes. The focus is on three creative and well-balanced recipes per day, each of which is prepared in just half an hour – healthy, nutritious and simple fare. Short and precise cooking instructions accompanied by step-by-step photographs nicely round off the offering. For excellence in design and navigation, KptnCook received the Google Design Award in 2018, followed by the coveted German Design Award by the German Design Council in 2020.

Over recent years, the company has grown strongly and, in January, reached the mark of 20 million app sessions per month. With its high-quality offering, KptnCook caters for the growing desire of an increasing number of people for a sustainable, healthy and wholesome diet. 'In future, we aim to meet the highly varied preferences of individual users with our recipe suggestions – including more offers for vegetarian and vegan dishes – to an even greater extent, dovetailing with the shopping experience at the supermarket', explains Alex Reeg, Managing Director of the successful KptnCook app.

'By increasing its stake in KptnCook, Miele is ratcheting up its commitment to digital business models as well as increasing synergies with existing offers', says Gernot Trettenbrein, Managing Director of Miele Venture Capital GmbH and head of the newly founded New Growth Factory business unit at Miele. In concrete terms, this is above all about closer integration of the KptnCook app and Miele's smart assistance system called CookAssist. In combination with the new Miele induction hobs from the KM 7000 series, CookAssist takes users by the hand and accompanies them step by step through the entire cooking or frying process so that classic but demanding dishes such as steaks or filets of salmon are done to perfection, even without any previous knowledge or experience – for example following recipes from KptnCook.

For KptnCook, Miele's extended financial interest offers the opportunity to expand its position in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and on further international markets. Currently, the app is the fastest-growing mobile recipe platform and market leader in daily use in Germany. Similarly, the existing business model is to be expanded, for instance by including attractive additional functions such as a personal weekly planner for subscribers. Alex Reeg: 'In Miele, we are pleased at having such a strong and dependable partner at our side, a partner who has provided us with excellent support in the past, shares our vision of a joint future and has the same passion for cooking healthy food. Together with our exceptional team, we are already tackling the next innovations'.

Company profile: Miele is the world's leading manufacturer of premium domestic appliances including cooking, baking and steam-cooking appliances, refrigeration products, coffee makers, dishwashers and laundry and floor care products. This line-up is augmented by dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilisers for use in medical and laboratory applications (Miele Professional). The Miele company, founded in 1899, has eight production plants in Germany as well as one plant each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Romania and Poland. These are joined by the two plants belonging to Miele's Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco. Turnover in the 2018/19 business year was around € 4.16 bn, with a share of business outside Germany of approx. 71%. Miele is represented with its own sales subsidiaries and via importers in almost 100 countries/regions. Throughout the world, the family-run enterprise, now in its fourth generation, employs a workforce of around 20,500, whereof 11,050 are employed in Germany. The company has its headquarters in Gütersloh in Westphalia.