Zero Cow Factory secures $4 Mn seed funding from Green Frontier Capital, GVFL, Pi Ventures and Pascual Innoventures for its alternative protein and dairy products
- ByStartupStory | April 5, 2023
Zero Cow Factory, a biotech start-up that makes dairy and alternative protein products, has raised $4 million (INR 32 crore) in a seed funding round that was co-led by Green Frontier Capital, GVFL, and Pi Ventures.
The Spanish dairy company Calidad Pascual’s investment arm, Pascual Innoventures, also took part in the round. The additional funding will be used by Zero Cow Factory to speed up R&D efforts, expand production capability, and get regulatory approvals needed to launch.
“We are also utilising this fundraising for our pilot facility in Gujarat and then, the regulatory comes as a next step right. Besides India, we are planning to target mature markets such as the US and Singapore,” Sohil Kapadia, cofounder of Zero Cow Factory mentioned.
Zero Cow Factory was established in 2021 by Parini and Sohil Kapadia. It primarily uses precision fermentation technology to create dairy and protein products without using any animal products. It is currently in the R&D phase and plans to sell products to end users through B2B partnerships with FMCG firms.
A specific product is produced by microorganisms through a process called precision fermentation. In order to produce proteins like casein (a protein found in milk) and whey, Sohil, the founder of the startup, explained that it first locates the genes segment or DNA codes in an animal, such as a cow. The DNA codes are then manually created in a lab and inserted into microorganisms.
“At the end, we train microorganisms to produce identical or similar proteins in a lab environment. After this, there is precision fermentation, which is basically done to produce a protein at a large scale. Then, there is a downstream process called purification of the protein,” Sohil explained.
The startup from Surat asserts that its alternative protein products are free of lactose, antibiotics, growth hormones, and saturated fats and contain about 99% pure protein.
Currently, Zero Cow intends to apply for regulatory approval in the US, India, and other markets. Under regular licences like the FSSAI and FDA, it cannot sell products directly in India and the US.
“Once we get regulatory approval, we will focus on pricing our products, which will be slightly higher in the beginning. However, the price will come down once products begin to scale,” said Sohil.
Zero Cow previously received a grant from BIRAC worth INR 50 Lakh for its inventiveness. Additionally, MeitY gave it a grant of INR 40 lakh (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology). Additionally, according to the founder, a few grants are in the works.
Notably, the startup faces competition from international brands like Perfect Day, New Culture, ReMilk, and Imagindairy but has no rivals in India.
Startups like Country Delight, which sells milk and other dairy products, MoooFarm, which helps farmers buy cattle and get loans, and Stellaps, which helps improve agri-supply chain parameters like milk production, milk procurement, and cold chain, among others, have grown in the overall dairy products space in the Indian startup ecosystem.
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