Summary:
Sundial Foods closes down after selling its intellectual property to a large European food company.
Founded in 2019, the startup was known for its innovative approach to plant-based meat.
Gained attention with the launch of plant-based chicken wings featuring an edible 'skin'.
Faced challenges in a tough fundraising environment, leading to the decision to close.
CEO Jessica Schwabach emphasized the strategic move to leverage a larger company's resources.
Sundial Foods: A Brief Overview
Sundial Foods, a California-based startup known for its innovative protein-structuring technique for meat alternatives, has officially closed down. The company has sold its intellectual property to a large, undisclosed European food company.
The Rise and Fall
Founded in 2019 by Jessica Schwabach (CEO) and Dr. Siwen Deng (CTO) from U.C. Berkeley’s Alternative Meats program, Sundial Foods gained attention after participating in the Nestlé R&D Accelerator in 2020. They secured $4 million in a seed round in November 2021 and received a $5,000 grant from Delaware’s Startup302 competition.
In 2022, they launched their much-anticipated plant-based chicken wings with a unique recipe that included chickpeas, sunflower oil, and nutritional yeast, featuring an edible “skin” made from a protein-lipid film. The wings debuted in select restaurants across New York and San Francisco.
Challenges Faced
Despite the initial buzz, the startup struggled with the challenging fundraising environment in the past few years. Jessica Schwabach commented on their journey, stating, “While we strongly believed in the mission, we started to see that operating as a venture-backed startup trying to build everything on our own was not the best way to scale our technology.”
The opportunity to sell to a larger company with an established distribution network was viewed as a strategic move to advance their technology further than they could on their own.
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