Horlicks Bets on Fermented Yeast Powder for India's Everyday Protein Market
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has launched Horlicks Protein Powder, built around fermented yeast protein, targeting India's under-penetrated protein supplement market
HUL has simultaneously withdrawn Horlicks Protein Plus, its legacy whey, soy and casein blend, opting to replace it with more digestible and more cost-stable yeast protein powder
Fermented yeast protein has moved from a niche formulation by Indian D2C startups to the foundation of a product from one of India's largest CPGs in under 24 months
A Legacy Brand Rebuilds Its Protein Proposition
Horlicks, the malt beverage brand with over a century of history and now owned by Hindustan Unilever in India, has re-entered the protein powder market with a new formulation centred on fermented yeast protein.
What stands out is that Horlicks India chose to replace its legacy whey, soy and casein protein powder with a yeast-based one.
Each 36g sachet delivers 24g of protein and 4g of chicory root prebiotic fibre, alongside papain, a plant-derived enzyme that assists protein digestion. The finished product carries a Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score, or PDCAAS, of 1.0, the maximum possible rating under a methodology endorsed by the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.
The product arrives as 28 single-serve sachets per kilogram pack, in Chocolate, Coffee and Unflavoured variants, and is priced at around Rs 2,500 per kilogram.
Credits: HUL
Why yeast, and why now
There are major forces are pushing yeast protein powders into the forefront.
Key for India is digestibility and tolerability. According to Rajneet Kohli, Executive Director for Foods at HUL, he said that HUL’s research found that “more than 60% of adults in India are lactose intolerant”, rising to around 82% in some parts of South India. This creates the need for a gut-healthy, non lactose protein option for daily use.
Secondly, “taste is supreme,” Kohli added, mentioning that the formulation went through “many, many, many” iterations before the company was satisfied with the taste, he says.
Globally, a key force is price and supply chain instabilities in dairy. Whey costs rose between 50% and 110% from 2024 to 2025 amid supply constraints, rising processor costs and GLP-1-driven demand.
India as the test case
Horlicks enters a market where yeast protein powders have already gained unusual traction.
Ranveer Singh's SuperYou is built around the ingredient and is now also available as a drink add-on across Starbucks in India. Marico-backed Cosmix now prominently features its yeast protein on its storefront. ITC's Yogabar added a yeast protein line in July 2026. Wholsum Foods' Mille, the sister brand to Slurrp Farm, sells yeast protein as its only protein powder option.
Online wellness aggregators give further proof of consumer demand for the category. Majors HealthKart, Nutrabay and GNC all list Yeast Protein as a standalone category alongside whey isolate and plant protein.
According to Kohli, the opportunity lies in the category's low base: protein supplement penetration in India stands at approximately 3% on the company's own assessment. Mordor Intelligence projects the Indian protein market will grow from $1.62 billion in 2026 to $2.22 billion by 2031.
India is where the consumer brands, retailers, ingredient suppliers and now a major FMCG incumbent are showing up at the same time. As further proof, last month, Arboreal Bioinnovations raised $24M+ to scale domestic yeast protein supply.
China appears to lead on yeast protein powder launches, largely within sports nutrition. Angel Yeast's AngeoPro is one of the category's largest-scale commercial offerings, with the company having brought an 11,000-tonne yeast protein line online in Yichang in 2025 and distributing across more than 40 markets. That sits inside a broader redeployment of Chinese fermentation capacity toward alternative proteins as pharmaceutical margins thin.
Europe has a stronger B2B ingredient ecosystem than consumer presence, including Yeastup, Revyve and Cosaic. Similarly, South Korea's Intake is scaling a grape-derived yeast strain aimed at whey replacement. In the US, SpaceMilk remains one of the few dedicated consumer examples in the yeast protein powder space.
From Niche Ingredient to Category Signal
If fermented yeast can move from a technical ingredient into an everyday nutrition product, and from early-adopter D2C brands into the portfolios of some of the country's largest consumer companies, it could provide a blueprint for how fermentation-derived proteins enter mainstream markets elsewhere.
For now, the interesting question is not whether yeast protein can work. The ingredient has already demonstrated commercial viability.
The question is how far the category can go, and who builds the brands, ingredients and infrastructure to take it there.
