With a passion for delicious food and its capacity to make the world a better place, Dirty Clean Food is changing the way people grow, think about, and purchase food.
Dirty Clean Food has built an alternative to the broken industrialised food system, which degrades soil and damages landscapes, providing better access to food grown using regenerative farming practices, sourced ethically, and supporting local communities. The small team in Western Australia operates on the steadfast belief that consumers desire and deserve easy access to food they can feel good about – exceptional taste and positive for the planet.
At the heart of the business is a direct-to-consumer digital platform with rapid delivery. This fast growing farm to fridge model supports local, family farmers who are using regenerative agriculture to grow delicious, healthy and environmentally-positive food.
Building a world-class regenerative food brand
After a holiday to Australia, Jay Albany fell in love with the country and decided he wanted to make Western Australia his home. Jay and his family made the move a few years later, leaving their life in New York to live in Perth.
There, Jay conceptualised what would become Dirty Clean Food, leaning on his background as a Wall Street hedge fund analyst and the co-founder of a eco-friendly New York grocery delivery service.
He connected with the founders of Wide Open Agriculture (ASX:WOA), Anthony ‘Maz’ Maslin and Ben Cole, and after learning about WOA’s commitment to building new businesses in regenerative agriculture, a friendship, a partnership, and a business was born.
The synergy between Jay’s vision and WOA’s goals resulted in the establishment of Dirty Clean Food under the WOA framework, where he could apply his extensive experience from the online grocery industry and analytical skills from investment finance in New York.
When WOA made a strategic shift to focus on lupin protein, going all in on its Buntine Protein® — which I covered earlier this year: Wide Open Agriculture commercialising sustainable protein alternative — it sold Dirty Clean Food to Jay, the then CEO of WOA.
Jay reached an agreement to take Dirty Clean Food private for a total deferred consideration of $1.5 million, payable over five years, plus the personal assumption of $500,000 in employee liabilities. Since then, profit margins and cash flow have improved by over 50% versus the prior year.
Fast growing platform for regenerative agriculture
Since its inception in 2019, the regenerative agriculture platform has delivered over 1 million products, completing 130,000 orders, and bringing in revenue of $37 million. The Dirty Clean Food team makes more than 30,000 product deliveries in Western Australia each year to over 12,000 customers in restaurants, grocery stores, and home delivery, and products are available in over 1,000 locations in Australia and Asia, including 40% of the top 100 restaurants in Perth.
Sales of Dirty Clean Food’s regenerative products are up almost 700% from 2020 to 2024, with annual revenue of $11.2 million in 2024, up from $1.4 million in 2020 (67% CAGR).
Dirty Clean Foods has mastered an omni-channel sales strategy, recognising that customers interact with and purchase food in many ways. Primary revenue streams by channel include Digital (direct to consumer) — the largest and fastest growing channel, Food Service, Retail (in grocery), and Export.
A 4 Returns Company
Dirty Clean Food embraces Commonland’s 4 Returns Framework, forming a deeply embedded connection to the regenerative movement that is evident in the company’s mission, ethos and operations.
Commonland, a not-for-profit organisation based in Amsterdam whose mission is to achieve holistic landscape restoration on a global scale, and it provides annual grant funding to Dirty Clean Food.
Regenerative agriculture is part of the solution to help transform damaged landscapes into thriving natural ecosystems by improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, capturing carbon, and improving the water cycle.
Crowdfunding now
The team behind Dirty Clean Food is currently undertaking a crowdfunding offer on equity crowdfunding platform, Birchal.
For more on the raise, including access to the offer document, click here.
Priced at just ~1x revenue ($2 per share), with a minimum individual investment of $250, the company is raising up to $1 million to fund growth — both in Australia and beyond.
They have raised $366,000 so far — well above the minimum target of $150,000, with the offer to close in a week’s time on August 8.
Investors can own shares for as little as $250 and Dirty Clean Food has committed to planting trees based on the amount contributed per investor. Their Regenerative Farmer Tree Project last year saw 100,000 biodiverse seedlings planted on their regenerative farmlands.
Commenting on the offer, Jay said: “Our vision for the future is clear. We’ve proven our model in Perth. We’re ready to go global.
“With the funds raised from this offer, we plan to grow. We’ll broaden our delivery area, seriously improve our online user experience, and expand our selection of fresh produce, healthy meals, pet food – and even add wine.
“We’ll also begin new market expansion with a focus on energising local, regenerative food sources globally”.
The crowdfunding offer follows the completion of a $1.2 million seed round in conjunction with the buyout from WOA. This was funded by Commonland, friends and family, and impact investors in Australia and Europe.
Use of funds
The company outlined its intended use of funds, based on the minimum and maximum investment amounts:
Expansion ($75,000-$500,000)
Minimum subscription: expand delivery zones to markets with existing demand. Adding regional hubs to facilitate deliveries reaching currently inaccessible areas.
Maximum subscription: build a Regenerative tool kit to be used in conjunction with potential future partners in expanding to the Eastern seaboard, and invest further in a growing export market.
IT & Equipment Upgrades ($50,000-$300,000)
Minimum subscription: Invest in the user interface to improve the overall customer experience when shopping online.
Maximum subscription: Invest in warehouse equipment upgrades further improve operational efficiencies.
New Products ($9,550-$120,800)
Minimum subscription: invest in product range expansion and development. Dirty Clean Food launched ‘Paddock to Paws’ regenerative pet food that completely utilises secondary meat cuts for an innovative and truly sustainable production system. Sales and reception has been very positive.
Maximum subscription: invest in diversifying the product mix by launching wine and new ready made meals.
For more on Dirty Clean Food see: https://www.dirtycleanfood.com.au/
Details of the crowdfunding offer can be found here: https://www.birchal.com/company/dirtycleanfood
You can also reach Jay Albany at +61 434 473 047 or jay@dirtycleanfood.com.au.
Thanks Kerry and Meagan for the kind words and for sharing our story. Love what you do at Omni Impact! Dirty Clean Food is a business that combines passion, purpose, and commercial savvy as we look to support regenerative agriculture via a killer consumer brand!