Image credit: Soylent
Soylent nutrition Participating in a public company starco brand As part of the acquisition, the plant-based food technology company will continue to operate as a separate division under current CEO Demir Vangeloff.
as part of transactionVangelov told TechCrunch that he will join Starco’s board of directors and acquire a stake in the new company, while himself and Soylent’s shareholders will become Starco’s largest single-voting bloc.Other financial details are: Not revealed.
Bloomberg first reported Last May, Soylent said it was exploring a potential sale, which is not uncommon, but financially speaking, the company was doing well. Vangelov said Soylent is profitable, has grown over the past few years, and is close to reaching its $100 million goal. However, the road to profitability has been complicated.
Origin of Nutrition Company
Founded in San Francisco in 2013 by Rob Rhinehart, Soylent focuses on what it calls “complete nutrition,” with shakes, shakes, and shakes to provide your daily dose of vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and protein. We are developing a line of powders and bars. The products he sells in his 28,000 stores including Walmart, Target, Publix, and in 2021 he will also add Walgreens.
Over the past decade, the now-Los Angeles-based company has raised over $133 million. Venture support fundsGoogle Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and The Production Board.
Soylent has also experienced his fair share of growing pains. In 2016, the company voluntarily recalled its bars after a customer fell ill. Ingredients derived from algae and re-formulated the powder.
Despite that setback, the company continued to raise $50 million in 2017. Later that year, Reinhart stepped down as his CEO and appointed Brian Crowley to the position, though Reinhart remained on as chairman.
Three years before Crowley took over, Soylent again rocked the management team, this time with Vangelov as CEO and Reinhart stepping down. Vangelov joined in 2018 after holding executive positions at Califia Foods and Oberto Foods.
“When I took over the company, we lost money and didn’t realize growth,” says Vangelov. “When the board hired me, their to-do list was to think about the economy, fix the product and see if we could get the growth back.”
He set out on the road to rebuilding Soylent’s economic infrastructure, including warehouses, distribution, teams and its partners. The company has also redesigned the product to improve function and taste, he said.
Vangelov said product improvements have resulted in growth to different channels and different consumer segments.
“Since then, it’s been consistently rated as the #1 tasting protein shake on the market, not just plant-based, but all the time,” he added. , we were able to resume investing in the brand because we didn’t have to constantly raise money with new investors coming in and out.”
next move
In 2022, Vangelov said he began thinking about how to inject growth into Soylent and saw two options. He and his board have chosen to partner with Starco Brands.
And who are Starco Brands? Public companies, part of The Starco Group, create and acquire consumer products such as household cleaning, automotive and personal care products. It was launched in 2010 and went by the name of Insynergy Products.
Insynergy went public in 2012 and changed its name to Starco in 2017. That same year, we introduced our line of Breathe aerosol cleaning products. In December 2021, the company partnered with singer Cardi B to launch Whipshots, one of his popular brands of vodka-infused whipped cream.
The past six months have been extremely busy for Starco. He made a leadership change, including appointing Ross Sklar, who had been with the company since 2015, as CEO. A care brand co-founded by Kobe Bryant in September. Then, in January, Starco acquired fragrance creator Skylar. Soylent is his third acquisition in that period.
Regarding the Soylent acquisition, Sklar said in a written statement: and nutrition. “
Meanwhile, Vangelov said that Soylent’s 20-person team, which learned of the acquisition on Monday, will remain with the company.
There are also several new products in the pipeline, but we were unable to disclose any details at this time.
“A point is reached in the evolution of a company where it cannot take its natural next step, which is taking a mature business to the next level of growth without another skill set,” he said. I was. “And to do that, we need funding. By partnering with Starco Brands, we are basically solving those two problems. They are the right marketers we can work with to accelerate our growth. We are people, we know how to launch innovation.”
