On-demand food startup Sprig is making its final deliveries today, the company revealed in an email to customers.
“It is with a heavy heart that my co-founders and I share that Sprig, Inc. will be shutting down the app today,” Sprig CEO Gagan Biyani wrote. “We apologize to those of you who relied on Sprig for daily meals, and to our extended Sprig team for how this will impact them.”
News of the closure is further evidence that on-demand food delivery is a tough business — in Sprig’s case, despite nearly $57 million in funding. Founded in 2013, by 2015, Sprig had raised $45 million at a $110 million valuation. The company experimented with collaborations involving local SF chefs and gained a following for consistent food. It expanded to Chicago, but soon retreated to serve just its original Bay Area market.
Although competitors to Sprig in the pre-made food delivery business, such as San Francisco’s Munchery, have also struggled, Biyana professed his faith in the on-demand food market. “I’m sad that the Sprig model did not work out — but the food delivery space on the whole is growing,” he wrote. “The demand for Sprig’s convenient, high-quality food was always incredibly high, but the complexity of owning meal production through delivery at scale was a challenge.”
Sprig’s closure affects about 200 employees and part-time employees.