Meal kit provider Chef’d, which had agreements with more than a dozen brands, shut down abruptly this week after suffering “setbacks with financing,” CEO Kyle Ransford said in an email to employees.

The service, which launched in 2015, had raised about $35 million last year with investments from Campbell’s Soup Co., Smithfield and others.

Ransford’s email signaled that a subsequent round wasn’t successful. Chef’d had about 350 workers.

The service attracted a range of brands including in March the family of Bob Marley, which had 21 Marley Kitchen Caribbean-inspired meals (jerk tofu, coconut dream fish and others). Other brands that attached their names to the meals included Wolfgang Puck (Shanghai noodles with steak), Campbell’s Kitchen (pull pork sliders, chicken and herb dumplings),  Coca-Cola (seared pork chops, vegetable lasagna) as well as the 2,000-member California Avocado growers cooperative (California rolls, fish tacos). There also were chef brands including Chef Maeve, Fabio Viviani, Virginia Willis, Gordon Ramsay and others.

Chef’d charged brands on-boarding (for recipes) and program fees (for meal plans and customized marketing), but also offered as part of a five-year agreement a royalty of 4% of gross sales. It also sold meal kits through brick and mortar retailers in addition to offering a home delivery service for consumers.

The company’s struggles came amid heightened competition from rival services like Blue Apron (Master Chef, Master Chef Junior licensee), Marley Spoon (Martha Stewart licensee) and HelloFresh, but also the grocery retailers themselves. Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger and others have all introduced their own meal kits this year.

Contact:

Chef’d, Cyndi McMaster, New Business Development Dir., 310-531-1935 x112, cyndi@chefd.com