Animal-free dairy and food innovation company, Perfect Day, has announced that it has raised $350 million in a Series D funding round. The funding round was co-led by Temasek and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). The purpose is to advance Perfect Day’s activities within the fields of biological engineering, ingredient innovation and consumer products. The recent funding round also included strong participation from long-term investors such as Horizons Ventures and Bob Iger, as well as SK, Inc. who deepened their role with Perfect Day in this funding series. The round brings Perfect Day’s total funding up to $750 million.
Perfect Day is a food tech start-up best known as the creator of the world’s first animal-free milk protein. The company developed a method for producing functional protein through the fermentation of microflora. According to the start-up, the proteins created in this process are identical to the proteins found in regular cow’s milk.
In 2019, founders Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi made a foray into consumer products through The Urgent Company (TUC), which is now a full-fledged part of the Perfect Day umbrella, and is keen to launch a range of household dairy staples under its second brand: Modern Kitchen.
In mid-2020, Perfect Day added SBF, Inc., a bioprocess scale-up facility located in Logan, Utah, to the corporate portfolio. Now, in addition to ingredient innovation and consumer products, the company intends to expand its offerings into “enterprise biology,” providing technology development services for companies looking to harness the sustainability and scale that Perfect Day has proven it can deliver.
Ryan Pandya, co-founder and CEO of Perfect Day, commented: “We’re a part of a new generation of leaders coming of age, armed with the world’s best science, systemic thinking, and compassion. We’ve seen it in lifesaving vaccines, and we’re about to see it in food. We’re proud of all our leaders – every single employee at Perfect Day, our partners and investors – and can’t wait for this next chapter.”
