Vegan pet food startup Wild Earth, which shot to fame after landing a Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban, has filed for bankruptcy. But co-founder Ryan Bethencourt says it’s not the end of the brand’s story.
Wild Earth, one of the leading plant-based pet food brands, has filed for Chapter 11 reorganisation bankruptcy in North Carolina.
The company, which made national headlines after finding success on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2018, reported $2.4M in assets and $12.6M in liabilities in the court filing. The business will continue to operate, with the Chapter 11 filing allowing it to restructure its debt.
“We just couldn’t find any venture investors,” co-founder and CEO Ryan Bethencourt told Triangle Business Journal, which first reported the news. He noted that Wild Earth couldn’t keep up with its venture debt despite months of negotiations, with its largest creditor, Espresso Capital, set to take over the business.
Bethencourt, who owns 9.2% of the company, hopes to stay at the firm, which will become a “leaner, meaner” operation. “I don’t think this is the end of the Wild Earth story,” he said.
Wild Earth CEO predicted challenges last year
A serial investor in the alternative protein ecosystem, Bethencourt established Wild Earth in 2017 after he “obsessed about pet food” and learnt about the industry’s environmental and health harms.
A year later, he appeared on Shark Tank and convinced Cuban to invest in the startup. The Dallas Mavericks owner agreed to pay $550,000 for 10% of the company – and unlike many deals that fall through after airing on the TV, this one came good. (Cuban still owns about 0.5% of the business.)
Its portfolio is dominated by dog food, treats and supplements, but it recently diversified into cat food too, launching a Unicorn Pate SKU in August. The company has dabbled with cultivated meat as well, working to develop a chicken broth topper for dogs – but it paused development efforts due to financial challenges, Bethencourt revealed in an interview with Green Queen last year.
Plant-based meat had already seen sales and investment slump by then, which he called “brutal, but inevitable”. “I think one of the biggest challenges for all of us is competing with some of the planet’s largest companies in the food category,” he said at the time.
“Most plant-based food companies are tiny in comparison to today’s food giants, but if we focus on making incredible products, with great customer benefits and very competitive prices, we can win.”
He added: “People will want to buy tasty, healthier and cost-competitive products – we just have to push our industry harder to deliver on these, and that’s a hard challenge for us all,” he notes.
Wild Earth has raised nearly $50M from investors since its inception, and at the time of the interview, had sold about $42M worth of pet food, according to Bethencourt. The company was targeting $15M in annual sales in 2024, though he stressed that the focus was on cost-efficient growth.
What led Wild Earth to file for bankruptcy
According to the Chapter 11 filing, Wild Earth had made $10.7M in revenue in 2023, which dipped to just under $7.6M in 2024. So far this year, it has recorded $590,000 in sales. Moreover, Bethencourt had told Triangle Business Journal in 2024 that the company was profitable.
Currently, it owes $259,000 to Animal Nutrition for a trial production of kibble, $319,000 to Barrett Petfood Innovation for inventory supplies, and $110,000 to entrepreneur Scot Wingo’s Triangle Tweener Fund. And the company’s largest venture investors are VegInvest Trust (a 25% share) and At One Ventures ($12.8%).
The bankruptcy document suggests that the business’s supply chain was disrupted due to COVID-19, while sales have been down due to inflation (its products cost 20-30% more than conventional pet food). Wild Earth has also been looking to expand into big-box retailers and expand into 300 stores, for which it was planning a costly rebrand and packaging redesign.
“Despite the debtor’s profitability, the debtor was unable to generate sufficient capital to address its outstanding secured debt,” the filing reads. “When it became clear that the Debtor would not be able to raise sufficient funds to address its outstanding obligations, while continuing to operate, the Debtor began seeking potential purchasers for its business.”
Wild Earth’s struggles mirror the larger investment landscape in the industry, with plant-based startups receiving 64% less venture capital in 2024 than the year before. In the last 12 months, several companies have been forced to cease operations or declare bankruptcy before being rescued, including Akua, Sunfed Meats, Willicroft, Mycorena, and Allplants.
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This post was originally published on Green Queen.