Soylent was founded in January 2013 by Rob Rhinehart. His stated goal was to find a more efficient food source for humanity.
Soylent is a nutrition beverage that contains all known human nutrients in proportions advised by the US Institute of Medicine.
Initially available only in powder form with separate oil bottle, Soylent was iteratively improved, using version numbers akin to the world of software such as "1.2, 1.3, etc". In 2014 "Soylent 2.0" a ready-to-drink 14oz beverage was released at the cost of $3 per bottle, delivered.
The first flavor "Coffiest" containing coffee powder and flavor, caffeine and l-theanine, was released in 2015.
Initially only available via soylent.com, Soylent became available on Amazon in 2016, and retail outlet 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, though at the time Rhinehart was working on a different idea, Level RF, which used software defined radios to construct a "network for the internet of things".
Timeline
Funding rounds
People
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