Soylent have mentioned world hunger. Here's how the World Food Programme tackle it: (https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition)

Here's the list of WFP food products (https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products) - especially look at the price. I guess they're making full use of charitable status and economies of scale.

Here's Plumpy'Nut, a fortified food product for starving children (http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-f...)

EDIT: And even here micronutrient powders are nothing new. See the link to DSM embedded in WFP page above. Here's their corporate page (http://www.dsm.com/corporate/investors.html). They're pretty big.

Note that an important part of Soylent, which is offloaded onto the consumer, is a source of clean water. Much of the world, especially in the target hungry world market, does not have access to clean water. I think people would criticise Soylent for that, so it's something for them to be thinking about.

I have no idea how Soylent is in anyway "disruptive" to that market.

Ignoring the "fixing world hunger" bit, liquid foods are not new. Here's a list:

(http://ensure.com/) Ensure

(https://www.nutricia.co.uk/fortisip//) Fortisip

(http://www.complan.com/) Complan

(http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands) Abbott Nutrition Brands

(http://www.medifast1.com/index.jsp) Medifast

(http://www.optifast.com/Pages/index.aspx) Optifast

(http://www.slim-fast.com/products/) Slimfast

Again - I have no idea how Soylent are disruptive.

Selling into other markets is interesting. I hope they've put disclaimers on some of the more outrageous claims, or they may find resistance. For example "For anyone who struggles with allergies, heartburn, acid reflux or digestion, has trouble controlling weight or cholesterol, or simply doesn't have the means to eat well, soylent is for you." contains medical claims which are treated very differently in the UK than they are in the US.

I see no evidence that Soylent have done any research at all.