Dao Foods Announces Investment in Alternative Protein Venture

Dao Foods International invests in Zero Limit, a Chinese plant-based baking startup, as part of its third cohort of the Dao Foods Incubator initiative. Dao Foods recruited these startup ventures as part of its plan, announced in 2020, to support and invest in 25-30 China-focused alternative protein ventures within three years.

Zero Limit is a Shenzhen-based company focusing on producing, researching, and developing plant-based bakery products. Zero Limit is committed to creating healthy bakery products that meet the taste expectations of modern consumers in China. The founder of Zero Limit is a senior nutritionist and a young mother of two kids. Her dedication to plant-based baking has been the driving force behind her persistent entrepreneurship since 2018. Zero Limit took the lead in establishing China’s first plant-based bakery factory.

Dao Foods Incubator’s third cohort consists of a Chinese cell-based meat company, a microalgae protein ingredient company, a plant-based bakery venture, and three cross-border companies with a passion for and a commitment to further developing China’s alternative protein sector.

“The alternative protein sector is still quite nascent in China,” Tao Zhang, co-founder of Dao Foods, said. “The game changers will be those entrepreneurs who know how to conquer the stomachs and minds of China’s shoppers. We hope that an army of such entrepreneurs can be nurtured and developed via the Dao Foods Incubator to achieve the positive environmental and climate impacts we are working toward in and from China.”

Dao Foods has recruited nine startup companies under its China-focused incubator program in Cohorts One and Two. Dao Foods’s first investment in China was in Starfield Food and Science Technology Limited, a Shenzhen-based food technology company considered mainland China’s fastest-growing and best-financed next-gen plant-based venture. Starfield recently completed its $100M series B financing, and its products have entered over 37,000 restaurants in China.