Daisy Lab: Rethinking Dairy in New Zealand

Daisy Lab is an Auckland food-tech company using precision fermentation to produce dairy proteins without cows, a bet that New Zealand can help shape the future of dairy, not just defend its past.

Daisy Lab was founded in 2021 by Irina Miller, Dr Nikki Freed and Emily McIsaac, three women who saw precision fermentation as too important for New Zealand to ignore. The company uses engineered yeast to produce dairy proteins that are molecularly identical to those found in cow’s milk, without the animals.

What Daisy Lab has done

In just over a year from founding, the team developed three whey-protein expression systems and produced animal-identical whey protein powder end to end. Their fermentation platform reached a production capacity of 10 grams of protein per litre of growth medium, well past the initial target of 3 grams. The company raised early-stage funding through grants, angel investment and a seed round led by Icehouse Ventures and in 2024 won approval from the Environmental Protection Authority to scale up contained production several hundred-fold, a milestone toward supplying dairy proteins as commercial ingredients.

Our focus remains on continuing to increase the yield, aspiring to reach up to 20 or potentially 30 grams per litre in the not-so-distant future.

Emily McIsaac, co-founder and COO of Daisy Lab

Beyond whey

Daisy Lab’s work extends beyond whey protein. The company has expressed casein and is working toward higher-value proteins such as lactoferrin, with applications across infant formula, functional foods, supplements and nutraceuticals. The technology uses genetically modified yeast in contained fermentation systems, the same broad approach behind familiar products like cheese rennet and insulin. The concept is explained in What is precision fermentation?.

Why Daisy Lab matters

Daisy Lab matters because it reframes the future of dairy as an opportunity for New Zealand, not only a threat. The company is not making another plant-based milk; it works on proteins that are molecularly identical to those in cow’s milk, produced through fermentation rather than animals. That distinction matters. New Zealand’s dairy economy is built on more than cows — it rests on processing knowledge, ingredient exports, food science and global trust in protein. If precision fermentation becomes a larger part of food production, Daisy Lab gives New Zealand a way to take part in that shift from inside its existing strengths.

Daisy Lab is part of a growing wave of New Zealand food-tech explored in New Zealand food-tech startups to watch.