Plated on Shark Tank: The Mark Cuban Deal That Fell Apart, a $200 Million Sale to Albertsons, and a Shutdown Two Years Later

Plated got a deal on Shark Tank, but it never closed. Co-founders Nick Taranto and Josh Hix, two Harvard Business School classmates running a meal-kit delivery startup, pitched in the same April 4, 2014 episode as Kodiak Cakes, asked for $500,000 for 4% and shook hands with Mark Cuban at $500,000 for 5.56%. After the show the business grew fast, the founders wanted to renegotiate, and the Cuban deal fell through. Kevin O’Leary invested a few months later instead. In September 2017 the grocery chain Albertsons bought Plated for a reported $175 million to $200 million up front, with more possible in earnouts. Two years later, in November 2019, Albertsons shut down its subscription delivery service and folded Plated into its store brands. In October 2026, plated.com redirects to Safeway. It is the clearest example on the show of a successful exit that was not a successful business.

The Plated Shark Tank deal at a glance

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At $500,000 for 5.56%, Cuban valued Plated at about $9 million, against the founders’ $12.5 million. Our post-money valuation calculator runs those sums.

What Plated was

Plated launched in November 2012 and sold weekly boxes of pre-measured ingredients and recipes for customers to cook at home. Wikipedia records that it joined the Techstars New York accelerator in spring 2013. It was a venture-backed company from the start, and by the time it appeared on television it had already raised outside money: a $1.4 million seed round in May 2013 and a $5 million Series A in January 2014, according to the TechCrunch and Wall Street Journal reports Wikipedia cites.

What happened in the Tank, and why the deal didn’t close

The Plated Shark Tank pitch is recorded on Wikipedia, citing Inc., as an ask of $500,000 for 4% and an accepted offer from Cuban of $500,000 for 5.56%. Due diligence is when most Shark Tank deals change or die, and this one died there. According to the same Inc. account, the company grew quickly in the months between taping and the deal closing, and the founders wanted the terms renegotiated to reflect that growth. Cuban’s deal fell through. About four months later, Wikipedia reports, they made a deal with O’Leary for an undisclosed sum.

That sequence is common for venture-backed startups on the show. The episode is a marketing event, and if it works, the company is worth more by the time the lawyers finish. A founder who has other investors lined up has less reason to honor a price set before the growth.

The venture money behind Plated

Plated was funded far more heavily than a typical Shark Tank company. The rounds Wikipedia lists, each with its own press source, add up to about $76 million:

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The total is our sum of those listed rounds; Plated never published a single figure.

What Albertsons paid for Plated

On September 20, 2017, Albertsons bought Plated. Neither company published the price. TechCrunch, citing The Information, reported a range of $175 million to $200 million, and said the final amount could be roughly double that if Plated hit performance targets that triggered “earnout” payments. Grocery Dive later used $200 million as the price. “We think there’s an opportunity to grow this thing tremendously,” Albertsons chief executive Bob Miller told The Wall Street Journal, as quoted by TechCrunch. The base price was about 2.6 times the venture money raised, by our arithmetic. Whether any earnout was ever paid has not been reported.

What happened to Plated after the sale

The plan was to put meal kits in Albertsons and Safeway stores and use the grocer’s trucks and customer data to cut delivery costs. It did not last. Grocery Dive reported that Taranto left in October 2018 and that Hix stepped down as CEO in January 2019, with Albertsons offering no reason. Earlier in 2019, according to Grocery Dive, Albertsons cut 10% of Plated’s corporate staff.

On November 13, 2019, Albertsons announced that “Subscriptions will be phased out by the end of November.” Plated became part of its Own Brands private-label lineup, sold in stores rather than delivered. “Our vision for Plated includes an expanded set of products that goes far beyond a dinner-based solution,” Albertsons’ chief merchandising officer Geoff White said in the statement.

Is Plated still in business?

Not as a company. The startup that pitched on Shark Tank was absorbed into Albertsons in 2017, and its delivery business ended in November 2019. When we checked on October 28, 2026, plated.com returned a permanent redirect to safeway.com. We found no recent report of Plated-branded meal kits still on sale, so we can’t say whether the in-store label survives anywhere. It is not sold on Amazon.

What founders can take from it

First, a handshake on Shark Tank is a starting price, not a contract, and a company that grows fast during due diligence will be tempted to reopen it. Plated did, and found another Shark. Second, a good exit and a good business are different things. The founders and investors sold at a price above the money raised; the buyer closed the core service two years later. Third, an acquirer’s plan is not your plan. Albertsons bought Plated to reach younger shoppers through delivery, then, after testing the kits in Safeway stores, decided the brand belonged on its own shelves instead. For a food company that turned its Shark Tank episode into a durable retail business instead, read about Kodiak Cakes, which pitched in the same hour.