After four years on the market, San Francisco alternative meat company Hooray Foods announced on Instagram that it is shutting down.
“With your support, we reached our goal of national distribution in grocery stores and restaurants,” read the post. “However, the economics of running a company of this size simply do not match our revenue, and we are unable to continue producing our product for sale.”
The fake bacon, which some people thought gave the real stuff real competition, was made from coconut oil, white rice flour, pea starch, tapioca starch, maple syrup and more. The startup, founded in 2019 by Sri Artham, had raised almost $6.3 million since 2020 after pivoting from a restaurant-partnered business to retail model because of the pandemic, according to the San Francisco Business Times. In the Bay Area, the product could be found anywhere from Berkeley Bowl to Whole Foods.
In February, Artham turned to the public for further funding. He had hoped to raise $500,000 on Wefunder by March, according to the San Francisco Business Times. The media outlet later reported that the crowdfunding campaign had accumulated only $100,000.