Thistle
“Can a plant-based prepared-meal delivery brand build sufficient national scale and repeat-purchase loyalty to become the default healthy eating subscription for health-conscious consumers?”
Thistle was co-founded by Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery as a direct-to-consumer plant-based prepared meal and cold-pressed juice delivery brand based in San Francisco. The company positioned itself around accessible healthy eating and environmental sustainability, focusing on reducing demand for animal products. After raising a $10.3M Series B, Thistle expanded from its West Coast markets toward a national footprint. The embedded finance layer — ClearBank as banking infrastructure — reflects the operational need for robust payment settlement and treasury management at scale.