Sprinkles Cupcakes Is Closing, Says the Cofounder

Sprinkles Cupcakes is closing, cofounder Candace Nelson stated on Wednesday.

Nelson began the American cupcake model in 2005 along with her husband. The couple offered it to private-equity agency KarpReilly in 2012.

“This is not how I assumed the story would go. I assumed Sprinkles would continue to grow and be round ceaselessly. I assumed it was going to be my legacy,” Nelson stated in a video on Wednesday.

Nelson stated the corporate’s locations were closing on Wednesday: “Simply to say that out loud is totally surreal.”

The corporate had 21 shops in seven states, in keeping with its web site, which didn’t point out any closures. Sprinkles pioneered the “cupcake ATM” in 2012, promoting cupcakes by means of a machine. The corporate had 25 such dispensaries in airports, malls, and different areas.

The corporate has over 1,000 staff, in keeping with Nelson’s LinkedIn profile.

After Nelson offered Sprinkles, she went on to cofound pizza firm Pizzana and CN2 Ventures, a household workplace that invests in startups. In 2022, she wrote a ebook for entrepreneurs about turning enterprise concepts into worthwhile corporations, primarily based on her expertise with Sprinkles.

On LinkedIn, Nelson stated she had “no possession or operational involvement” with Sprinkles.

Neither Sprinkles nor its private-equity proprietor, KarpReilly, responded to Enterprise Insider’s requests for remark.

It is unclear if KarpReilly offered the enterprise or is winding it down. The agency eliminated Sprinkles from its on-line holdings record within the fourth quarter, in keeping with an archived model of its web site.

Connecticut-based KarpReilly’s meals and beverage investments embrace Wilde Chips, the ice cream firm Salt and Straw, and the fast-food rooster firm Starbird.

Sprinkles was one of many final holdouts of the 2000s cupcake boom, together with Georgetown Cupcakes, which has two bodily areas.

A couple of have rebooted, including Crumbs, which closed in 2016 after increasing aggressively as a public firm. The husband-and-wife cofounders, who offered half their stake in 2008, purchased the rights to Crumbs in 2022 and made it a delivery-only enterprise.