Juicero, the Silicon Valley startup that raised more than $100 million in venture capital for a $700 juicer that became a butt of industry jokes, announced on Friday that it is ceasing operations after just 16 months and looking for a buyer.
Juicero, the $700 juicer startup, is looking for a buyer — and shutting down in the meantime
Juicero had raised more than $100 million.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
The company, started by former Organic Avenue CEO Doug Evans, had cut the price of its juicer to $399 and had planned to unveil a new version at $199. It had also said it planned to reduce the price of the vegetable and juice packs required to make each glass of juice.
But in a statement on its website on Friday, Juicero said, “[I]t became clear that creating an effective manufacturing and distribution system for a nationwide customer base requires infrastructure that we cannot achieve on our own as a standalone business. We are confident that to truly have the long-term impact we want to make, we need to focus on finding an acquirer with an existing national fresh food supply chain who can carry forward the Juicero mission.”
In March, a Bloomberg article and video detailed how some of the juice and vegetable packs could be squeezed by hand — rendering the actual press unnecessary. Supporters of Juicero would say that most of the packet mixes did not allow for as easy a hand-pressing as the one chosen for the Bloomberg article, but the damage was already done. Several investors told Bloomberg they were not aware of the fact some packs could be pressed by hand.
Investors include GV (Google Ventures), Artis Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Thrive Capital.
Earlier this year, the company’s chief product officer Malachy Moynihan — the same exec who oversaw hardware development of the Amazon Echo — quietly left the company for a senior executive role at Flex, the electronics manufacturer, sources told Recode.
Evans was replaced in 2016 by Jeff Dunn, the former CEO of Bolthouse Farms.
There are still a ton of open questions about what transpired — if you have any details, you can reach me at jason@recode.net or 917-655-4267 on Telegram or Signal.
In the meantime, here’s the founder Evans enjoying a wind storm at Burning Man earlier this week.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
