- Pioneering animal-free dairy maker Perfect Day has announced the expansion of its Series C funding round to $300 million
Pioneering animal-free dairy maker Perfect Day has announced the expansion of its Series C funding round to $300 million through a new tranche led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) as it prepares to expand into new product categories and channels in the coming months. This funding round follows an initial $140 million C round shared late last year — which was met with additional inbound interest after production breakthroughs in the company’s proprietary flora-made dairy proteins.
In the past few months, the company has doubled its ability to produce its hallmark protein while substantially reducing costs several years ahead of expectations. And these production milestones — coupled with the expanded Series C round led by $50 million from CPP Investments’ Thematic Investing group, and bolstered by long-time supporters Temasek and Horizons Ventures — are marking the beginning of a new chapter for the startup. Perfect Day’s flora-made protein also achieved a major regulatory milestone in the successful completion of the FDA’s review of its Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status.
The dairy industry has experienced a supply glut due to COVID-19, which was driven by long production cycles, centralized manufacturing, and limited processing facilities. And Perfect Day holds a unique advantage as it can produce dairy proteins through fermentation in microflora instead of cows. So the company and its partners can quickly increase or decrease production depending on demand and can allocate a stable protein supply to where it is needed most. Perfect Day is also planning to build a turnkey network of localized animal-free dairy protein producers and processors to avoid unnecessary supply chain bottlenecks.
Key Quotes:
“We never doubted we’d reach this point, we just didn’t expect to get here so quickly. And, thanks to our world-class team and investors, we’re not planning to take our foot off the pedal anytime soon. The coronavirus pandemic has shown just how fragile our food system is. We’re committed to building real change that prioritizes diversity, agility, and resilience.”
– Ryan Pandya, co-founder and CEO of Perfect Day
“This marks the first investment into Thematic Investing’s new Climate Change Opportunities strategy, which will focus on innovative companies that are well positioned to respond to the challenges posed by climate change. Sustainable technologies like Perfect Day are poised to capture structural shifts in industrial practices, physical resources and consumer preferences for environmentally conscious options, which are well-suited to our long term investing approach. We look forward to building our partnership with the company and its management team.”
– Leon Pedersen, Managing Director, Head of Thematic Investing at CPP Investments
“We’re grateful for the continued support of our investors from all over the world. But, of course, our mission is about much more than money. We continue to believe the next generation of protein will be driven by production speed, price, and taste, and we’ll have several exciting updates to share in the months ahead as our commercial partners start to build momentum.”
– Perumal Gandhi, co-founder of Perfect Day
