Brown Foods, a one-year-old Y Combinator Winter 2022 alum with teams in Boston and India, is developing UnReal Milk using mammalian cell culture to produce real whole cow’s milk in the lab. The founders—Sohail Gupta, Avhijeet Kapoor and Bhavna Tandon—say they validated major macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbs) and achieved nutrient profiles similar to conventional milk. Their product can mimic taste and texture more closely than plant-based alternatives and can be converted into dairy products such as butter, cheese and ice cream. The company estimates its cell-cultured milk will have a roughly 90% smaller carbon footprint than conventional dairy. Brown Foods is currently pre-revenue and has completed laboratory validation; scaling remains a key technical and commercial challenge. Management plans a small scale-up in the next year and will use funding to advance bioprocess, scale-up and product development.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jun 2022