Starfield Food & Science Technology Funding, Investors & Competitors

Impossible Foods is a Walnut Creek-headquartered developer of plant-based meat alternatives using legume proteins and heme. The company produces Impossible Burger patties, ground beef, and sausage for retail and foodservice. Available at Burger King, Starbucks, and 30,000 US grocery stores, Impossible Foods partners with Disney parks and Lowes Foods. Founded in 2011, it focuses on recreating meat's taste and texture for climate-friendly proteins.

Believer Meats is a Jerusalem-headquartered cellular agriculture company that produces cultivated beef, chicken, lamb, and seafood through scalable bioreactor technology. The firm operates manufacturing facilities in Rehovot, Israel, and Wilson, North Carolina, focusing on distributive biomanufacturing to lower production costs. In 2023, Believer Meats rebranded from Future Meat Technologies and achieved the first ton-scale cultivated meat run globally. It collaborates with partners like Sodexo and Tyson Foods for market entry in Europe and the US. Founded in 2018, the company serves the food industry with animal-free proteins to address sustainability challenges.

Eat Just is a San Francisco-headquartered developer of plant-based foods, best known for JUST Egg, a mung bean protein liquid egg substitute that scrambles, fries, and bakes like chicken eggs. Cholesterol-free and non-GMO, the product uses 93% less land than conventional eggs and is sold in grocery chains worldwide including Walmart and Tesco since its 2018 commercial launch.

Oatside, operated by Float Private Limited, is a Singapore-based oat milk manufacturer that launched Singapore's first oat milk brand in 2022. The company controls its supply chain end to end, from sourcing Australian oats and spring water to in-house manufacturing, and its product line includes oat milk, flavored milk, oat lattes, and ice cream. Oatside sells across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan, positioning itself to lead the shift toward plant-based milk in Asia.

Perfect Day is a Berkeley, California-headquartered biotech firm producing animal-free whey and casein proteins identical to dairy counterparts using precision fermentation. Founded in 2014, it partners with Nestlé for ice cream and Mars for chocolate products, scaling production at a 30,000-liter fermenter facility. The proteins appear in Brave Robot ice cream sold nationwide and The urgent Cow milk. Perfect Day's process reduces cow methane emissions equivalent to 379 million gallons of milk annually.

Unilever is a diversified beauty, wellbeing, and personal care (44% of 2024 sales by value), homecare (20%), and packaged food (36%) company. Its brands include Dove personal-care products, Knorr soups and sauces, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Axe and Rexona deodorants, and TRESemme haircare. The firm has been acquisitive in recent years; notable purchases include Paula's Choice, Liquid I.V., Horlicks, and Wild deodorants. The company derives 58% of its sales from emerging markets and 42% from developed markets. The US is its largest market, accounting for around 20% of sales, followed by India, which accounts for 11% of sales.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd is an Indian consumer goods company. The firm offers different brands from distinct categories, from cosmetics and hygienic items, including detergents, soaps, shampoos, skincare, toothpaste, and deodorants, to food and beverages (tea, coffee, packaged foods). Its product portfolio contains household brands such as Lux, Lifebuoy, Pepsodent, Closeup, Pureit, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Pond's, Vaseline, Lakme, Dove, Clinic Plus, Sunsilk, Kwality Wall's, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, and Fair and Lovely. The company's segments include Home Care, Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Foods, and others. Geographically, it generates a majority of its revenue from India.

Church & Dwight is the leading global producer of baking soda. Its portfolio extends beyond its legacy category to include laundry products, cat litter, oral care, deodorant, and nasal care, all sold under the Arm & Hammer brand. Its brands also include Batiste, OxiClean, Vitafusion, Hero, and TheraBreath, which, together with Arm & Hammer, account for around 70% of its annual sales and profits. Most recently, the firm added Touchland and its hand sanitizer business to its fold. Even as it works to expand its product reach, Church & Dwight still derives around 80% of its sales from its home market in the US.

Marico Ltd is an Indian consumer goods company. The company provides products across the health, beauty, and wellness category. It manufactures hair care, male grooming, skin care, edible oils, health foods, and fabric care products. Locally, Marico sells its products through brands such as Parachute, Parachute Advansed, Nihar, Nihar Naturals, Saffola, Hair & Care, Livon, Set Wet, Mediker, and Revive. Geographically, the company has two segments; India which derives key revenue; and International.

Nutrabolt is a Bryan, Texas-headquartered sports nutrition company producing C4 pre-workout energy drinks, protein powders, and recovery supplements. Founded in 2002, it distributes through GNC, Amazon, and grocery chains, with C4 brand generating over $300 million in annual retail sales.

NotCo is a Santiago, Chile-headquartered food technology company producing plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, milk, and mayo using artificial intelligence to replicate animal product textures and flavors from ingredients like cabbage and pineapple. Its products, including NotBurger and NotMilk, are available in the United States through partnerships with Walmart and major retailers since launching in 2015.

AbbVie is a pharmaceutical firm with a strong exposure to immunology (with Humira, Skyrizi, and Rinvoq) and oncology (with Imbruvica and Venclexta). The company was spun off from Abbott in early 2013. The 2020 acquisition of Allergan added several new products and drugs in aesthetics, including Botox. The 2024 acquisitions of Cerevel (neuroscience) and ImmunoGen (oncology) help supplement AbbVie's portfolio.

With roughly one-third of the global branded diabetes treatment market, Novo Nordisk is the leading provider of diabetes care products in the world. Based in Denmark, the company manufactures and markets a variety of human and modern insulins, injectable diabetes treatments such as GLP-1 therapy, oral antidiabetic agents, and obesity treatments. Novo also has a biopharmaceutical segment (contributing less than 10% of revenue) that specializes in protein therapies for hemophilia and other disorders.

Bayer is a German healthcare and agriculture conglomerate. Healthcare provides close to half of the company's sales and includes pharmaceutical drugs (39% of total sales in 2024) as well as vitamins and other consumer healthcare products (13% of total). The firm's crop science business (49% of total) sells seeds, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, which was expanded through its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto.

Galderma was formed in 1981 as a joint venture between Nestle and L’Oreal. It subsequently became a subsidiary of Nestle, called Nestle Skin Health, before being carved out and launched as a stand-alone company in 2019, acquired by a consortium led by Sweden-based EQT fund. The company went public in March 2024 and is listed on the SIX Swiss exchange. Galderma’s science-based portfolio spans multiple dermatology categories, including injectable aesthetics, dermatological skincare, and therapeutic dermatology. It derives around 40% of net sales from the US and employs around 7,00 people.

Haleon is one of the largest consumer health companies in the world. Formed by a combination of consumer health divisions of GSK, Pfizer, and Novartis, Haleon separated from GSK and went public in July 2022. The firm generates 60% of sales from global power brands including Sensodyne, Advil, Centrum, and Poligrip, that play in many geographies and are often leaders in their respective categories. It also has a number of local brands, including Emergen-C, Eno, Tums, and Caltrate, that are more tailored to regional needs and have strong local brand equity. Overall, Haleon’s brands tackle a variety of silos within consumer health including oral care, digestive health, pain relief, and nutrition.

Yunnan Baiyao Group Co Ltd is engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of medicines, which include herbal products, daily health products, raw medicine, drug classics, and others.

CooperCompanies is one of the largest eyecare companies in the US. It operates in two segments: CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision is a pure-play contact lens business with a suite of spherical, multifocal, and toric contact lenses. The company also has one of the most comprehensive specialty lens portfolios in the world. With brands including Proclear, Biofinity, MyDay, and Clariti, Cooper controls roughly one fourth of the US contact lens market. CooperSurgical, founded in 1990, is made up of equipment related to reproductive care, fertility, and women’s care. Cooper has the broadest medical device coverage of the entire IVF cycle. It also has Paragard, the only hormone-free IUD in the US, and controls 17% of the US IUD market.