Plant-based company Sunfed has announced the closure of its operations as inventory runs out and investors leave.
Sharma Sukul Lee, the chief executive of the New Zealand company, announced the news via the company’s Facebook page. She said staff shortages, supply chain disruptions, and skyrocketing costs had left the business battered and bruised and in dire need of a cash injection.
Sunfed began in 2015 and has provided meat alternative products across the New Zealand and Australian markets. Its products use regenerative yellow peas, water, and cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil as primary ingredients.
Consumers have been vocal about the difficulty of finding Sunfed’s products over the past several months, and Lee reported that its Australian inventory ran out in January. She added that its New Zealand inventory is expected to run out in the next two months.
Lee’s announcement cited that the so-called ‘plant-based bubble’ had well and truly burst, and that existing venture capital investors were no longer interested in supporting the business.
According to Lee, many of Sunfed’s investors had jumped into the ‘plant-based gold rush’, and have expected fast valuation returns similar to what they were used to in the virtual world, but had also discovered that manufacturing was more complex than it seemed.
Lee’s conclusion was that investment had ultimately let the company down.
"Sunfed's VC investors chose not to clear the way for Sunfed, but instead held on to their preferential claims, which complicated new capital options for the company."
SunFed Mets gathered approximately NZD 1.5 million in start-up funding in 2016 to turn imported yellow peas from Canada into a plant-based product as a substitute for chicken. Its last capital raise happened in 2018, which Lee said ran very lean for far too long, without many resources for growth activities, such as resources and distribution.
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