Blue Apron
Meal kitsUSA
New to Unitard
π€ Acquired
PeakΒ $1.89 BillionToday
~-95%
from peak
- π¦Became a unicorn2015
- πPeak valuation$1.89 Billion β17
- πBecame a UnitardJun 2017
- πΈLast valuation~$94.5M
Current status
Acquired by Wonder Group ~$103M equity (Sept 2023)
The rise & fall
7 moments Β· 2012β2023The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2012
2012
Founded in New York
Meal kits by subscription β the recipe-in-a-box pioneer.
Wikipedia
Jun 2015
Jun 2015
Joins the unicorn club
A funding round values it around $2B at the meal-kit craze's height.
WSJ
Jun 2017
Jun 2017
Goes public at $1.9B β into Amazon's shadow$1.89B
The IPO range is slashed after Amazon announces the Whole Foods deal the same month.
CNBC
2017
2017
Out of the club within months
Shares halve as acquisition costs and churn swamp the model.
Macrotrends
2022β24
From the inside Β· Glassdoor reviews, 2022β24
Glassdoor reviews across 2022β24 repeatedly argued the meal-kit business couldn't turn a profit against HelloFresh and delivery apps, and described a revolving door of senior leadership; customer-support staff described near-impossible call quotas.
Sep 29 β23
Sep 29 β23
Wonder announces a ~$103M equity offer$103M
Wonder offers $13 per share, valuing the equity at about $103M. The offer is 137% above the previous dayβs closing price; Wonder plans to keep the Blue Apron brand.
π¬ entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor β; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Blue Apron was a meal-kit delivery pioneer valued near $2B as a private company and went public in mid-2017 at a roughly $1.9B valuation. High customer-acquisition costs and churn, plus competition from Amazon and others, sent shares tumbling well below $1B, and in September 2023 it was acquired by Wonder Group for about $103M in equity (~-95% from peak). Customer-support staff, meanwhile, described metric-heavy monitoring and near-impossible call quotas.
Source: SEC 8-K/Retail Dive
Founders & leadership
- Matt Salzbergco-founder & CEO (packed the first 30 orders himself in 2012)
- Matt Wadiakco-founder & COO (the food half of the founding team)
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-20. See our methodology.
