SpiceNerds is broke

The food start-up opened insolvency proceedings after over-indebtedness of more than one million euros was already on the books at the end of 2020.

The start-up SpiceNerds is insolvent. The organic dressings company, founded in 2018, opened insolvency proceedings back in early June, according to an entry in the Federal Gazette. According to the report, the Berlin-based startup was already over-indebted by around €1.15 million at the end of fiscal 2020.

Since April 2019, SpiceNerds sold its jars of dressing made from organic ingredients for salads and vegetable dishes in supermarket chains Familia and Combi, as well as through its own online store. SpiceNerds made sales of around 68,000 euros according to its 2020 financial statements, but the bottom line was a loss of nearly 600,000 euros. A year and a half later, the dressing specialists have probably now drawn the line. Also German startups reported on the insolvency.

For a long time, the signs were pointing to success: in 2019, a media-for-equity deal with Prosiebensat.1 was apparently to be concluded. 1.5 million euros was the according to media reports. SpiceNerds could have used the budget to run TV ads, with Prosiebensat.1 getting shares in return. But the deal never aired, Prosiebensat.1 told Startbase.

Founder Thomas Kuhmann is an experienced management consultant, CEO Daniel Kähler headed marketing for McDonald's Germany and ran a Kochhaus branch. With its founding, SpiceNerds wanted to "bring variety to the product line," as Kähler told the Branded magazine said. That's because the conventional variations of salad dressings are often unimaginative, he said. In addition, he said, the start-up had developed "a completely new product category with its sauces for vegetables."