Participated · Series A · Mar 2018

Perfect Day produces plant-based ice cream by using microbial fermentation to create milk proteins such as casein and whey without any animal products. The company’s process recreates components of cow’s milk so its products are suitable for all consumers, including vegans. The article identifies Perfect Day as a U.S. company. Financially, the report states Perfect Day completed a Pre‑E financing of up to $90 million. No operating metrics (revenue, users) or additional financial details were provided in the article. The report does not detail future plans or past financing rounds. Perfect Day develops precision-fermented, animal-free milk proteins that can replace conventional dairy in a range of products. The company sells ingredients to food manufacturers and operates consumer brands through The Urgent Company (TUC), whose Brave Robot ice cream is in over 5,000 U.S. stores. Perfect Day acquired SBF, a bioprocess scale-up facility in Logan, Utah, and is expanding into "enterprise biology" services to help other companies scale biological solutions. The company emphasizes sustainability: a third-party LCA found its whey protein can cut blue water use by up to 99%, greenhouse gas emissions by up to 97%, and non-renewable energy use by up to 60% versus conventional methods. Perfect Day has been investing in new consumer brands (Modern Kitchen) and bolstering its executive team to support growth across ingredient, consumer, and enterprise biology businesses. Perfect Day develops flora-made dairy proteins produced via fermentation in microflora as an alternative to cow-derived dairy. The company reports recent production breakthroughs, having doubled its ability to produce its hallmark protein while substantially reducing costs several years ahead of expectations. Its flora-made protein completed the FDA GRAS review, a major regulatory milestone. Perfect Day plans to expand into new product categories and channels in the coming months and expects commercial partners to start building momentum. The company is also planning to build a turnkey network of localized animal-free dairy protein producers and processors to reduce supply chain bottlenecks and enable responsive scaling to demand. Perfect Day is a Berkeley, Calif.-based company that researches, develops and produces flora-based (animal-free) dairy proteins. The company demonstrated that its manufacturing process works at commercial scale in 2019 and launched a limited-edition ice cream that sold out in a single day. It has entered commercial production and plans to manufacture and commercialize its protein across multiple continents through partnerships. Perfect Day intends to expand production capacity, deepen partner opportunities, and extend its product portfolio. The company said it will announce its first commercial partnerships early in 2020. This fundraising round increases the company’s financial resources to support those commercialization plans. Perfect Day produces animal-free dairy proteins using a decades-old fermentation process that yields proteins with the same nutritional profile and food functionality as cow's milk. Its dairy proteins are sustainable, vegan, and lactose-free. Founded in 2014 and led by CEO Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi, the company aims to provide a more secure, environmentally friendly, and nutritious source of protein without the use of animals. Perfect Day plans to grow its team, accelerate scale-up efforts, and commercialize products with a wide variety of partners across the food and dairy sectors. Earlier in the month it received its first patent for the use of animal-free dairy proteins in food applications.

Led · Seed · Feb 2016

Capzest operates a digital lending platform that partners with banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to offer personal and business loans. The company recently launched its platform and is led by Ayush Gajwani with co-founders Sayantan Sarkar and Rohan Adlakha. Capzest raised seed funding to support initial operations and product rollout. The startup intends to use the funds to expand operations, hire new staff and launch new loan products. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the report.