Blue Earth Summit

Some start-up stories begin with a whiteboard, a pitch deck, or a hackathon. Wylde Market’s began with frustration, and a dining room table in Andalusia, Spain.

After six years living in southern Spain, surrounded by rich landscapes and fresh, traceable food, co-founder Nick Jefferson moved back to the UK and found himself staring at supermarket shelves that simply didn’t add up. On an island producing some of the world’s best fish, dairy, vegetables and regenerative produce, why was it so hard to find any of it?

• Why were small-scale farmers thriving in Spain while UK producers struggled?

• Why were brilliantly caught British day-boat fish bypassing local people?

• Why was some of the best food in Europe practically unavailable to the people who lived next to the land and sea that produced it?

After weeks of complaining, Nick’s wife gave him the nudge every founder needs:

“Shut up and do something about it.”

Wylde Market was born.

• 👉 Listen to the full podcast on Spotify

• 👉 Watch the full podcast on YouTube

The Farmers Market in Your Pocket

Wylde Market is now the UK’s online farmers market, a digital marketplace connecting consumers directly to the best regenerative, organic and small-scale food producers across the country, and delivering everything in one beautifully curated box every Friday.

No warehouses filled with stock. No supermarket markups. No industrial supply chains.

Just real food from real producers at fair prices, delivered anywhere in the UK (barring the Highlands/Northern Ireland) within a day.

Producers list their fresh, seasonal produce between Friday afternoon and Wednesday noon. Wylde aggregates the orders, builds the boxes, and ships them nationwide through courier partners.

Consumers get produce they can trust. Producers earn what their food is actually worth. And the planet benefits from regenerative farming, lower waste and shorter, smarter supply chains.

As Nick puts it: “We’re bringing the Agora back. Nothing we’re doing is new, it’s simply how food was always meant to be bought and sold.”

From Real Estate Lawyer to Food System Rebel

Wylde Market’s origin story is as unexpected as it is compelling.

Nick’s background spans:

• City real estate law

• Global employer brand consultancy

• Creative agency turnarounds

• Six years running global consultancy work from rural Spain

• A deep fascination with food culture and biodiversity

At first glance, it’s eclectic. But Nick sees it differently:

“I couldn’t be doing Wylde Market today had I not done all those things.”

Logistics from property law. Brand-building from consultancy. Founder resilience from agency work. Food culture from Spain.

And now, all those threads converge in a mission that is undeniably urgent.

The Problem Wylde Is Solving (And Why It Matters)

The UK food system is broken. Not metaphorically, literally broken.

• The world’s best fish caught on the south coast rarely reaches local plates

• Langoustine from Scotland gets shipped to England because supply chains are so tangled

• Ultra-processed foods have gone from niche to norm

• Farmers are squeezed to the point of collapse

• Consumers want better food, but can’t access it

Wylde sits at the intersection of all of this.

It’s not just a marketplace. It’s not just another food subscription. It’s a direct challenge to the supermarket monopoly.

Nick’s North Star is crystal clear:

“I want to take on and kill the supermarkets. They are the villains of this story. They’ve shafted producers, shafted consumers, and shafted the environment.”

This isn’t small thinking. It’s system-change thinking.

A Model That Works, And Scales Fast

Wylde Market has:

• Grown every month since launch.

• Nationwide delivery with no stock-holding.

• A very high average order value.

• Strong repeat purchase behaviour.

• Over 30,000 subscribers on its database.

• A loyal producer network of regenerative, organic and biodynamic suppliers.

• A brand that consumers trust, and tell their friends about.

Their “farmers market in your pocket” model is already showing powerful network effects.

People taste the food at a friend’s house → ask where it’s from → buy from Wylde → tell someone else.

This is how food culture spreads, person to person.

The Technology Behind the Movement

Instead of burning millions building complex proprietary tech, Wylde has taken a pragmatic route:

• Shopify at its core.

• Smart hacks to enable marketplace functionality.

• A “skateboard → scooter → bike → car” iterative development approach.

• An ex-supermarket COO leading logistics.

• A fully just-in-time model (no stock, ultra-fresh produce).

• Outsourced delivery to courier experts like DPD and DHL.

It’s simple, resilient and scalable.

Wylde Market focuses on what matters: trust, producers, customers and quality.

The Market Is Turning: And Wylde Is in the Right Place

The rise of ultra-processed foods. The public health crisis. The revival of interest in regenerative agriculture. The collapse of consumer trust in supermarkets. The cultural shift toward real food and traceability.

Wylde Market isn’t riding a trend, it’s riding a transformation.

Or as Guy said in the podcast: “The food system is ripe for proper, proper disruption.”

Now Raising Through Blue Earth Ventures

Wylde Market has raised £1.4m to date through SEIS/EIS rounds, with a strong investor group adding capital and expertise.

They are now beginning conversations for their next raise, which will support:

• New warehouse expansion.

• Tech upgrades.

• Scaling nationwide logistics.

• Accelerating producer onboarding.

• Growing the brand and customer base.

• Taking their first serious bite out of the supermarket market share.

Wylde Market is now raising through Blue Earth Ventures, giving investors the chance to be part of one of the most exciting food system shifts in the UK.

A Movement, Not Just a Marketplace

Inspiration matters, and Wylde is proud to follow in the footsteps of transformative founders like Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) and to learn from US peers like Farm to People.

But Nick’s ambition is crystal clear:

“We’re coming for Big Food. And we want to build this into a business that rewrites how people eat, in the UK and beyond.”

This is more than a company. This is the beginning of a global food movement.

 

Join the Wylde Movement

For consumers, Wylde is simple: wild.market → order by Wednesday → receive on Friday.

For investors, the opportunity is just as clear: The UK food system is broken. The demand for better food has never been higher. Wylde Market has the model, the traction and the mission to fix it.

And they’re raising now through Blue Earth. Contact [email protected] for more information.