Soylent

Soylent was founded in January 2013 by Rob Rhinehart, John Coogan, Matt Cauble, and David Renteln. Their stated mission is "to make complete, sustainable nutrition accessible, appealing, and affordable food for all."The company's name is derived from the food substitute Soylent Green, found in the dystopian science fiction movie of the same name.

Soylent's initial product offering was powder. In 2014, "Soylent 2.0," a ready-to-drink 14oz beverage, was released at the cost of $3 per bottle, delivered. Soylent is now available in bar form as well.

Initially only available via soylent.com, Soylent became available on Amazon in 2016 and at 7-11 in 2017. In 2018, Soylent expanded to other large retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, Ralph's, Safeway, many independent outlets in New York, and elsewhere.

Soylent participated in the YC S12 cohort of Y Combinator.

Timeline

May 2017

Soylent raises a $50,000,000 series B round from Andreessen Horowitz, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Tao Capital Partners.

January 14, 2015

Soylent raises a $20,000,000 series A round from Andreessen Horowitz, David Friedberg, Index Ventures and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

November 12, 2014

Soylent raises a $60,800,000 series A round from Initialized Capital.

October 21, 2013

Soylent raises a $1,500,000 seed round from Andreessen Horowitz, Hydrazine Capital, Initialized Capital and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

June 24, 2013

Soylent raises a $800,000 seed round from Andreessen Horowitz, Hydrazine Capital, Initialized Capital and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

Funding rounds

People

Name

Role

Alexis Ohanian

Investor

Garry Tan

Investor

Harj Taggar

Investor

Jack Altman

Investor

John Coogan

Founder

Kevin Warner

Employee

Neil Durbin

Employee

Nicole Westmore

Employee

Rob Rhinehart

Founder

Robert Yemm

Employee

Sam Altman

Investor

Documentaries, videos and podcasts

Title

Date

Link

Companies

Company

CEO

Location

Products/Services

News

Title

Author

Date

Publisher

Description

Why Silicon Valley's Optimization Mindset Sets Us Up for Failure

Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein

September 10, 2021

Time

Big Tech's focus on optimization and increasing efficiency is not inherently a good thing. What values should we pursue instead?

Soylent Expands Product Line With Higher Protein + Nootropics

Soylent

January 1, 2021

www.prnewswire.com:443

/PRNewswire/ -- Soylent Nutrition, Inc., the company who pioneered drinkable, complete meals, is kicking off 2021 with the announcement of two new products....

Soylent shakes up its executive team, naming Demir Vangelov as its new CEO

Jonathan Shieber

February 13, 2020

TechCrunch

Soylent, the once high-flying Los Angeles-based meal replacement startup that has raised $72.4 million in financing from investors including Google Ventures, Lerer Hippeau and Andreessen Horowitz, has shaken up its executive team. This week, the company announced in a blog post that the company's chief financial officer, Demir Vangelov, would be taking over the top [...]

Meal replacement company Soylent adds mint chocolate flavor

Jonathan Shieber

September 25, 2019

TechCrunch

The meal replacement company Soylent Nutrition, Inc., has added mint chocolate flavor to its line of drinks and snacks. "Our new Mint Chocolate Drink requested by our fans was engineered by Soylent's hard-working team, with the complex tastes of humanity in mind," said Andrew Thomas, Soylent's VP of Brand Marketing, in a statement. In concert [...]

Here's Soylent's New Product. It's Food.

JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH and JOHN HERRMAN

April 18, 2019

www.nytimes.com

The Silicon Valley food-drink of choice is now a 'complete nutrition platform.' The beverage plot thickens.