US startup Perfect Day says acquisition of Sterling Biotech will double production capacity

Perfect Day, the US-based startup that acquired Gujaratbased Sterling Biotech through the liquidation process, said it will be investing Rs 957 crore, or one and a half times the price of the acquisition, on scaling up production that involves manufacturing and exporting animal-free milk protein from Sterling facilities in India.

Perfect Day is also planning to use existing commercial teams at Sterling to launch commercial operations in India. The company said it has received approval from the food regulator the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to sell its animal-free milk proteins. The company will shortly be announcing partnership with a major food company.

“Sterling was interesting because they're already manufacturing high-quality pharmaceutical ingredients. And it turns out the way that they make these ingredients is through a very similar kind of fermentation process that we've now developed to make food ingredients,” said Ryan Pandya, CEO of Perfect Day, in an interview to ET.


“So, with that in mind, we did a tremendous amount of diligence on the business and the team and found that it actually is quite compatible with what we're doing,” Pandya added.

He said Perfect Day will use the capabilities of Sterling to move fast and double its production capacity while continuing to satisfy and fulfill the existing customer relationships of Sterling.

Perfect Day emerged as the highest bidder at Rs 638 crore to acquire Sterling Biotech against the reserved price of Rs 548.46 crore.