Chef’d, a meal-kit e-retailer that raised $40.5 million in venture-capital money, has ceased operations.

The shutdown comes not long after Chef’d announced some high-profile partnerships, plus recently received praise from actress and singer Thalía.

In May, Chef’d teamed up with Byte Foods, which uses smart refrigerators to sell fresh food via unattended storefronts embedded in workplaces, hospitals and apartment buildings. According to a company statement issued at the time, Chef’d began distributing meals via 100 of Byte’s unattended locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. The plan was to expand into all 500-plus locations over time.

Lee Mokri, founder and head of sales and marketing for Byte Foods said he was surprised by the demise of Chef’d.

“I think the announcement further validates that the meal kit business is tough and the competition for customers is fierce,” Mokri says. He says the Chef’d meals “were selling really well in our fridges” and expects to find a new partner to meet that demand.

Also in May, Chef’d said it would work with part-owner Smithfield Foods Inc. to distribute Chef’d meals to more than a dozen retailers in 27 states, including Costco Wholesale Corp. (No. 12 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000), and the Harris Teeter, Tops, Hy-vee, Weis Markets and Gelson’s Markets supermarket chains.

Chef’d last year raised $35.2 million in a series B funding round from Smithfield ($25.2 million) and Campbell Soup Co. ($10 million), according to reports. In 2016, Chef’d generated $12 million in sales and ranked No. 838 in Internet Retailer’s 2017 Top 1000. The merchant did not have enough sales in 2017 to rank in Internet Retailer’s 2018 Top 1000.

In a statement, Tim Zimmer, chief marketing officer for Smithfield said: “Smithfield Foods, Inc. learned that as of July 16, 2018, Chef’d has ceased all of its operations. We are currently evaluating all of our options in the meal-kit space, and will determine our next steps in the coming weeks.”

Representatives of Chef’d and Campbell Soup did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chef’d, unlike other meal-kit companies, did not require customers to sign up for a subscription—and option that was convenient for some customers, but possibly had a negative impact on revenue. The company also differentiated itself by offering meal collections created by celebrity chefs such as Wolfgang Puck, Fabio Viviani and Chitra Agrawal, along with food brands including Atkins, Campbell’s and Beyond Meat. In February, Chef’d added Marley’s Kitchen—a brand created by the family of the late reggae pioneer Bob Marley—to the mix.

As of Friday morning, the Chef’d website and social media pages have no mention of the shutdown. Over the past few days, people claiming to be former employees used the Chef’d Facebook page to vent and ask questions, but Chef’d had not responded as of Friday morning. The Chef’d website was still up, but not taking orders.

Additionally, Chef’d’s competitors went to its Facebook page to make sales pitches to abandoned customers: