SDC portfolio company Yo! Egg has created the world’s first plant-based poached and fried eggs. Containing 0% cholesterol, the eggs are formulated primarily out of chickpea and soy protein.

Yo! Egg co-founder and CEO, Eran Groner, explains that the impetus to create these products came when chef Yosefa Ben Cohen was hired by a popular restaurant chain in Israel to develop a vegan sunny-side-up egg. When customers began requesting “just the egg,” Groner said, he realized that there’s a huge market demand for the “egg experience” – including Yo! Egg’s signature runny yolk.  

“This product tastes just like an egg. It looks like an egg. The texture and flavor and color, everything is just like an egg. The animal is a middleman that we don’t really need,” Groner says. “It only adds complexity.”

Following a 2019 launch in Israel, where the company is headquartered, Yo! Egg is now in the process of rolling out its products in the United States – debuting in a number of Los Angeles restaurants and at the National Restaurant Association Show in May 2023. 

Yo! Egg’s expansion plan is driven by strategy, targeting progressive markets with a focus on restaurants specializing in breakfast and brunch options. This strategy has been designed to garner mass market appeal and propel the startup toward achieving its goal of being the world’s largest egg manufacturer. 

While the manufacturing process for these plant-based eggs can’t be revealed. The company has developed proprietary equipment and a protected process to perfect the runny yolk and has scaled up these culinary practices to enable mass production. For chefs in Yo! Egg’s partner restaurants and kitchens, making these products is easy: they just need to be boiled, and it is challenging to overcook them. 

Yo! Egg products are already at price parity with premium eggs, and the startup aims to reach parity with traditional eggs within the next few years. 

While these products are currently only available in restaurants, hotels, and corporate kitchens, the startup has its sights set on reaching customers through grocery stores and other food service establishments throughout the U.S. Incorporated in late 2021, the startup received $5 million in seed funding in May 2022 in a round led by Stray Dog Capital and NFX. To learn more about the company, and stock these products, get in touch directly with the company.