Bloomberg reports that Nestle, the world’s largest food company, is the lead investor in a $4M seed round for Sundial Foods (IBSF11 2021). In the article “Nestle Invests in Maker of Fake Chicken That Has Skin and Bones” Bloomberg writes, “The Swiss food giant has been investing heavily in alternative proteins as an increasing number of consumers forgo animal products amid environmental and health concerns.” 

The founders of the young company—CEO Jessica Schwabach and CTO Siwen Deng, Ph.D got their start in 2020 at Nestle’s R&D Accelerator and continued their work at SOSV’s IndieBio in San Francisco in 2021. They will use the funds to improve and expand production, grow the Sundial team, and bring the product to market in 2022.  

About the rapid progress of Sundial Foods, Po Bronson, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of SOSV IndieBio, said: “Making a super tasty alt-chicken wing is only half of it. During the IndieBio program, the Sundial team really focused on automating their production and manufacturing method, where they had several breakthroughs. They’ll make it to market faster than any IndieBio company in history.”