Food delivery start-up SpoonRocket shuts down
San Francisco-based meal delivery start-up SpoonRocket has shut down its operations. In a notice posted on its blog yesterday (15 March), SpoonRocket advised its customers to “transition” to customers to fellow on-demand food company Sprig, which will be offering SpoonRocket users a $10 discount for a limited period.
SpoonRocket said that it “faced intense competition from competitors like Sprig and an ever tightening funding environment” and “explored all strategic options till the very last minute but unfortunately, they all fell through”.
Sources report that SpoonRocket was selling meals for more than it cost to cook, package, and deliver them – and then relying on venture funding to keep the business afloat in the hope that profits would follow as the market grew.
The meal delivery business has attracted a huge number of start-ups and, more recently, big players like Amazon and Uber have muscled their way in too. But with so much competition, margins are tight and many expect that more “market consolidation” is likely to continue.
