In April 2026 a company most customers had never heard of went bankrupt, and a Berlin meal-kit business felt it at once. FreshRealm, the US partner that packed and shipped Marley Spoon's boxes, filed for Chapter 11 on 27 April. Marley Spoon had to find someone else to do the work, and it did: Misfits Market took over as fulfilment and supply partner for the American business.
That is what a meal-kit company really is. Behind the recipe cards and friendly marketing sits a hard logistics business, run on thin margins, fresh ingredients and other people's warehouses.
Marketing rose to about 21 million euros in that half, around a fifth of revenue, against roughly 15 percent a year earlier.
Marley Spoon was founded in Berlin and grew by sending boxes of pre-portioned ingredients to homes in Europe, the United States and Australia. Public accounts of the founders' early days are scarce, so this profile sticks to what the record supports.
What the record shows is a cycle many consumer startups know. Demand surged when people were stuck at home. Then it cooled. Net revenue for 2025 came in at about 238 million euros, down more than 22 percent on the year before. In the first half of 2026 it fell further, to 105.6 million euros from 138.9 million a year earlier, a drop of about 24 percent.
The company paid to stay visible. Marketing rose to about 21 million euros in that half, around a fifth of revenue, against roughly 15 percent a year earlier. Operating EBITDA, which had been a small profit of 5.6 million euros in the first half of 2025, swung to a loss of 6.8 million. Management guided to revenue of 175 to 185 million euros for the full year 2026 and a loss at the operating level.
There is also a brand story. In 2025 analysts noted that the budget brand Dinnerly was being discontinued in Europe while it carried on elsewhere. Cutting a brand that works in one market and keeping it in another is the sort of choice that shows how thin the margins are.
What can a first-time founder take from it? Growth that is lifted by an unusual moment is not the same as lasting demand. A business that depends on a single supplier can be hurt by that supplier's failure in a single week, and the founders who survive are the ones who have a second name on speed dial before they need it.