Perfect Day Foods

Launching the world’s first company to grow milk proteins from cell cultures instead of cows

2024 - Ongoing

Perfect Day Foods is a San Francisco-based cellular agriculture company making milk from cell culture.

It began as the “New Harvest Dairy Project”, co-founded by three members of the New Harvest community.

Perfect Day Foods was one of the first companies founded tackling agricultural commodities with cellular agriculture, and they ignited a trend of rapid and enthusiastic venture interest in the space.

They blazed a trail showing the world that cellular agriculture could work.

PERFECT DAY FOODS

Overview

Perfect Day Foods is a San Francisco-based cellular agriculture company making milk from cell culture.

It began in April 2014 as the “New Harvest Dairy Project”, co-founded by three members of the New Harvest community, Ryan Pandya, Perumal Gandhi, and Executive Director Isha Datar.

Perfect Day Foods was one of the first companies founded tackling agricultural commodities with cellular agriculture, and they ignited a trend of rapid and enthusiastic venture interest.

Today, Perfect Day Foods has raised tremendous amounts of investment, built multiple pilot and manufacturing plants, and has cellular agriculture products on store shelves.

They blazed a trail showing the world that cellular agriculture could work.

Early on in Perfect Day’s journey, Isha Datar donated her stock in the company to New Harvest in an effort to eliminate conflicts of interest while she continued non-profit field-building work.

The stock functions as New Harvest’s endowment for securing the organization in the future.

PERFECT DAY FOODS

Progress Timeline

Apr 2014 - Ryan Pandya, Perumal Gandhi, and Isha Datar apply to an accelerator in Cork, Ireland as the New Harvest Dairy Project.

Apr 2014 - New Harvest Dairy Project is accepted into the accelerator and incorporates as a company under the name “Muufri.” Ryan, Perumal, and Isha are co-founders with equal shares.

May 2014 - The project gets picked up by the publication New Scientist after it was shared in the New Harvest newsletter. The piece in New Scientist draws in investors. The New Scientist article pulls in follow-on articles with the Washington Post and the Daily Mail. Muufri goes on to be mentioned in agriculture and dairy industry publications, too.

Jul 2014 - While reviewing paperwork with Muufri’s first major investor, Isha Datar donates her shares in Muufri to New Harvest and gives up any formal role in the company. She feels it is important to keep the non-profit voice strong in this new, emerging industry. It will help the industry grow faster, more responsibly, and encourage cooperation and communication.

Mar 2015 - In light of growing independent interest among investors in cellular agriculture, New Harvest moves away from founding companies. Instead, we focus on more neglected aspects of ecosystem building and supporting pre-competitive research.

Dec 2022 - New Harvest announces that their stock in Perfect Day Foods is up for for sale, to support New Harvest’s transition towards more government funding support.

PERFECT DAY FOODS

Collaborators

Perfect Day Foods was co-founded by Ryan Pandya, Perumal Gandhi and Isha Datar.

PERFECT DAY FOODS

Funders

New Harvest’s contributions to this collaborative effort were funded by New Harvest, through unrestricted donations from our giving community.

PERFECT DAY FOODS

Contact

If you have questions or would like to get in touch regarding this project, please contact Paige Wilcoxson at paige@new-harvest.org