Just six months after Blue Apron went public, its growth has come to a screeching halt
When Blue Apron was preparing for its initial public offering earlier this year, its selling point, like that of many startups, was rapid growth and leadership in an emerging market. But the company's claims to preeminence in the app-based food delivery business took a hit even before it went public when Amazon announced it was buying Whole Foods, instantly creating a potentially giant competitor to Blue Apron. And now the company doesn't even have a growth story to sell.
As we can see in this chart from Statista, Blue Apron's growth - in revenue, customers, you name it - came to a dead halt in the third quarter. With his company's share price already in the dumps, CEO Matt Salzberg announced Thursday he was stepping down.
It remains to be seen how Blue Apron will fare going forward. Several competitors have gone out of business this year. Meanwhile, Plated was bought by Albertsons for around $200 million in September, and HelloFresh recently went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
