Protein bar startup David is disrupting food science with its venture-backed experiments, and it’s just getting started

Even if you’ve never tried their products before, you’ve probably seen David’s provocative ads on billboards or… Instagram. Their clean font, serif font and gold packaging stand out to potential customers by making it look as if their bars contain Willy Wonka’s winning ticket (not to mention their foray into frozen cod, marketed simply as having “a little more protein per calorie than our bars,” which has been plastered everywhere across New York this summer). Perhaps David is the apotheosis of sorts New York Times It’s called The “protein craze” is taking over grocery stores, from cereal to soda.

Ranen’s most famous partner is Peter Rahal, who previously started the ubiquitous RXBars, selling it to Kellogg’s for $600 million before moving on to his next venture once the non-compete expired. Ranen, who Rahal hired as co-founder, had a more circuitous journey, leaving PE shop Warburg Pincus to pursue his passion for the keto diet by starting a venture-backed, sugar-free pastry e-commerce venture out of New Jersey that never took off.

The two men share a growing belief that amidst various nutritional fads, they’re not interested in prioritizing all-natural ingredients (which RXbars focuses on) or cutting out carbs at all costs (the hallmark of keto). Instead, they decided that the only truly timeless principles were to reduce calories and sugar and increase protein.

David’s flagship product is almost a Frankenstein creation, a world crazier than cooking. Its 20-something ingredients somehow come together in a bar that comes in nine flavors, including cake batter, brownie fudge, and seasonal pumpkin spice. It provides 28 grams of protein in just 150 calories, which the company prides itself on as the most efficient delivery system on the market. They say that only boiled cod has a better ratio of protein per calorie, hence this summer’s side quest, which is sourced from an Alaskan fisherman and is still available, although much less popular.

What makes David truly unique amidst the protein onslaught, however, is his key innovation – a seemingly magical ingredient called esterified propoxyglycerin, or EPG for short. EPG is a type of fat replacement, serving as a substitute for butter or palm oil while providing nearly zero calories, forming the basis of the impossible nutritional facts for protein bars. (The closest comparable, Olestra, became infamous in the 1990s after becoming synonymous with a certain type of leakage, though Ranen says EPG’s main innovation is not turning into a liquid at body temperature.)

Although the EPG has been around for decades, and was created by scientists at Kansas State University, its creators have been unable to find a champion to bring it to the mass market. When David adopted this component, the patent holders—a company called Epogee—proposed an acquisition. This led to David’s decision to raise $75 million Series A Earlier this year, it was led by Greenoaks, with a significant portion of capital allocated to purchasing Epogee and expanding the operation.

There is a future for David where the EPG becomes more valuable than his bars. Ranen says they’re already in talks to sell the ingredient to different companies, though their focus is still on producing enough of it for themselves. They are already expanding their offerings over the next year, including protein-packed, low-calorie ice cream. I was able to sample the prototype from David’s headquarters in New York’s Hudson Square neighborhood, though I had to swear the amazing macros to secrecy.

Like the bars, the ice cream contains a slew of ingredients that would make anyone born before the 1950s swoon: whey protein isolate instead of milk, allulose and monk fruit instead of sugar. The end result, somehow, is still creamy and dense, albeit with a slight chemical aftertaste synonymous with protein bars. When I asked Ranin if he felt like they were angering the gods with such creatures, he laughed. “Historically, there has always been a trade-off between taste, texture and nutrition,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, is break down the trade-offs.”

Leo Schwartz
tenth: @leomschwartz
Email: leo.schwartz@fortune.com

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