Wheyward Spirit has wandered down to California to make its sustainability-minded product, and that's paying off for the Portland-based startup.
It was one of four winners in the Real California Milk Excelerator’s recent Open Innovation Final Pitch Event, created by the California Milk Advisory Board. That earned Wheyward $50,000 in resources and funding to grow its operations in California, with more support possible based on performance.
Wheyward Spirit uses whey, a liquid byproduct of cheesemaking, as its base. Whey disposal is a challenge for the dairy industry and putting more of it to use — upcycling it — to reduce food-system waste is a founding rationale for the company.
The California competition said it “sought early-stage applicants with high-growth potential that create a 50% cow's milk-based product or working prototype.”
Although based in Portland, Wheyward Spirit is made in Sonoma County, which founder and CEO Emily Darchuk described as “the crossroads of dairy and alcohol” in a Business Journal story earlier this year.
“Our team looks forward to working in partnership with the CMAB over the next year to grow Wheyward Spirit and we are proud to be an example of category-expanding sustainable innovation using Real California Milk,” Darchuk said in a statement after being named one of four winners in the pitch competition
Darchuk already had a master’s degree in food science and technology when she came up with the whey spirit idea in 2017 while an MBA student at the University of Oregon. In 2018, her budding company was in the Cascadia Cleantech Accelerator, where it won a standout company award and prototyping grants. It also won a Small Business Innovation Research program grant, with assistance from Portland-based VertueLab, along the way.
The spirit officially launched in September 2020. It’s available through the Wheyward website and many Oregon retailers, and has gained store placements in California.
