The soufflé has sunk at Dutch dotcom Recipeweb.com, after it revealed that the necessary next round of funding, totalling €2.5m, is not forthcoming, and the online recipe publisher was facing bankruptcy.
Recipeweb.com organised investment commitments totalling €1.5m, but without the remaining dough the company cannot keep afloat. A deadline of 28 February was given to find the funds after a court granted temporary protection from creditors earlier this month.
Company CEO Oscar van Dijk, who personally ploughed one million guilders into the project late in 1999, is stressing that the end may not be nigh. “We are still talking with several interested parties,” he told Reuters, adding that “strategic investors” may yet launch a takeover of Recipeweb.com.
“After taking over our only sector peer E-Licious in Sweden in September last year, we became European market leader,” Van Dijk said, highlighting the once rapid growth of the company, which also sells food related business software and services.
Somewhat ironically, the funds crunch has come just months before the company planned to break even. “After [the end of this year], we will be self-supporting,” explained Van Dijk, adding that he is confident Recipeweb.com still has the ingredients to do so.
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