http://www.latimes.com/business/tech...113-story.html

Soylent, all-in-one foodmaker now based in L.A., raises $20 million

By Paresh Dave contact the reporter

Soylent Co., the Los Angeles start-up that makes a powdery food
substance with a sweeping nutritional composition, has raised $20
million in additional venture capital, the company announced Wednesday.

The components of basic staples including dairy, grains, fruit and
vegetables are combined into Soylent and sold as an instant replacement
for a balanced meal. Though developed to be mixed with water and sipped,
many early consumers have found the taste too bland and are tossing
Soylent into traditional recipes to make cookies, boba and oatmeal. The
company has shipped more than 3 million €œmeals€� since May.

The new funding from the venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz,
along with Lerer Ventures and others, should help Soylent speed
production to clear up a nearly five-month backlog of orders.

€œIm confident we can make serious headway,€� said Chief Executive Rob
Rhinehart.

Based on his own research about what a body needs to survive, he started
developing Soylent a couple of years ago in his kitchen-turned-lab. He
kept an online diary and picked up $4.5 million in seed funding along
the way.

The all-vegan ingredients include rice protein, oat flour, calcium and
folic acid. The powder has about 510 calories per serving, with 45
derived from fat.

Rhinehart, a computer engineer, saw his concoction resonate with busy,
hungry peers in tech. That has helped Soylent gain credibility over
protein-packed meal replacement products traditionally aligned with the
fitness and bodybuilding crowd. Investors see promise in Soylent being a
healthy, affordable and environmentally sustainable alternative to
traditional foods.

Soylent and start-ups developing substitutes for meat and eggs are just
some of the food-tech companies being graced with Silicon Valleys
wealth and expertise. The entrepreneurs and investors see a worldwide
demand for such products.

€œPeople want to be healthier and save money and save time, but they
dont know how,€� Rhinehart said. €œWere trying to extract out a lot of
that complexity. We feel very fortunate to have our investors really
share a vision of having better food in the future.€�

Rhinehart expects the $3-a-meal price for Soylent to slowly decrease as
his team of researchers determine how to synthetically produce or
harvest raw ingredients at lower costs. Most consumers seem to be using
Soylent for about 60% to 80% of meals, he said. The long-term effect of
Soylent consumption isnt a likely candidate for study until the recipe
stabilizes -- a milestone that Rhinehart said is near.

Soylent, founded in Northern California, moved to a more affordable
space in the Civic Center area of downtown Los Angeles in November.