sprig kitchen food photos 7284Melia Robinson
The San Francisco food-delivery startup Sprig will be shutting down Friday, Business Insider has learned.
The company had raised over $56 million from Silicon Valley's top investors for its new spin on food delivery. 
Sprig's business was a high-end meal-delivery service in which customers could get anything from a shredded raw zucchini bowl with shrimp and basil-walnut pesto to the ever-popular lemon-Parmesan kale and quinoa salad.
It will stop operating Friday, a company representative confirmed. Its 200 employees will receive two months' pay, and the company will be having a career fair to help them find a new job. The Information first reported its pending close.
"No question, I'm sad that the Sprig model did not work out — but the food delivery space on the whole is growing," its CEO and cofounder Gagan Biyani wrote. "The demand for Sprig's convenient, high-quality food was always incredibly high, but the complexity of owning meal production through delivery at scale was a challenge."
Sprig is the latest food-delivery startup to close its doors after struggling to scale. Earlier in May, the New York-based Maple suddenly closed and sold its parts to Deliveroo. Last March, SpoonRocket, a California-based delivery service, shut down and sold its IP to a Brazil-based company. In its footsteps, startups like Din and Bento have also closed down. Other startups trying to revolutionize food delivery, like Munchery, are still struggling. 
See the memo, obtained by Business Insider, below: 
Dear friends and customers,
It is with a heavy heart that my co-founders and I share that Sprig, Inc. will be shutting down the app today. We apologize to those of you who relied on Sprig for daily meals, and to our extended Sprig team for how this will impact them.
Food delivery has a bright future, and I’m proud of the work we have done at Sprig that has had a positive impact on the space.
To our employees: thank you. You provided the best customer service in the industry and created innovations that were admired by your peers. You created a daily rotating menu with hundreds of different dishes served, you prepared the most delicious delivery food I’ve ever tasted, you built a 100% self-engineered system that delivered industry-leading transparency and accountability in our ingredient sources and nutritional data, and you created a logistics engine that let us bring food to people hot and ready to eat often in less than 15 minutes. All of our employees, including our servers, kitchen, hub and HQ staff, will receive two months pay as part of the close down. More importantly, we will be hosting career days to help you on your next path. You are armed with experiences that will help accelerate your career and we will be there to help you succeed. (Note: If you are a company that is hiring and interested in talking to our team, please e-mail us at jobs@sprig.com.)
To our customers:you have been our inspiration on this journey. Thank you for the tremendous word-of-mouth growth and feedback you’ve provided us: your messages, phone calls, photos, and reviews made this all worthwhile. We’re proud to have delivered millions of meals to you, and hope you keep demanding the best from the companies that feed you. Four years ago, food delivery was a pain -- expensive, hard to find, and poor quality. Today, there are thousands of restaurants delivering amazing food to you; we’re hopeful for the future.  
To the press and public: No question, I'm sad that the Sprig model did not work out -- but the food delivery space on the whole is growing. The demand for Sprig’s convenient, high-quality food was always incredibly high, but the complexity of owning meal production through delivery at scale was a challenge. After spending four years as a food-tech industry insider, I’m amazed at what the space has become. Food is one of the foundations of society and I believe strongly that it must become more sustainable and ethical. I’m hopeful that the food delivery companies that are succeeding will make this a priority. Please continue to help us inspire change: encourage sustainable food systems, better treatment of workers and more awareness of nutrition. These are serious issues and they cannot have enough attention.
As for me, my primary goal for the coming weeks is to ensure our team members find their next steps. After that, some time for personal reflection, then off to the next venture.
Thank you for everything,
Gagan