Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Dreamfarm
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Dreamfarm
Cloud Computing
mercantilism
Crypto
Image Credits:Dreamfarm
go-ahead
EVs
Fintech
Image Credits:Dreamfarm
fundraise
gismo
punt
Government & Policy
Hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
societal
Space
startup
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
More from TechCrunch
outcome
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
video recording
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Vegan cheese is n’t ordinarily anything to drop a line home about , in footing of taste and grain . Dreamfarm , a inauguration based in Parma , in the Food Valley of Italy , is hoping to change that . It ’s cooked up a plant - based mozzarella using a stand of fermented almonds , and just a handful of other ingredients , which it figure does a far better task of mimicking factual mozzarella than the average vegan cheeseflower alternative .
As with traditional ( quality ) dairy - free-base mozzarella , Dreamfarm ’s plant life - based tall mallow come as a bollock suspended in liquidness — so you ’re not buy a traveling bag of mozzarella - season cube or sliced bit . ( And the startup say it has a patent on the process used to create this faux “ mozzarella in liquid ” using a blend of vegan component . ) The production also blow an ‘ A’Nutri - Score , with lower level of fat , concentrated fatness and salinity than dairy - base mozzarella . ( Albeit , it ’s also lower in protein . )
“ The idea was that we want to create the title-holder in the plant life found tall mallow category , ” says CEO Giovanni Menozzi . “ And so we will not compromise on ingredients , on Nutri - Score , in general on goodish score . ”
While the market for vegan products remains pocket-size , interest in dairy option is growing as more people look to dilute economic consumption of food for thought derived from animal , include for environmental and health cause .
Menozzi — a comparatively recent hire for Dreamfarm as it incite beyond its other , R&D - pore stage — recount how the startup ’s two conscientious objector - laminitis , Maddalena Zanoni and Mattia Sandei , saw an chance to boom the size of the securities industry for vegan high mallow by focusing on product calibre .
“ What they meet , essentially , is that plant - based cheeseflower — all the mathematical product , the category — was passing little . But the intellect were quite cleared because the products were not good enough , ” he order TechCrunch . “ A lot of ingredients , like more than 10 , 12 constituent in products , and also not salubrious . ”
One of the co - founder , Sandei , had also been act upon for a b2b food ingredient company which append the substitute center industry . “ So I think what they see was happening in the inwardness alternative industry they want to repeat in tall mallow , ” Menozzi goes on .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
“ Many companies start in meat option with a luck of ingredients — not healthy , not tasty — and then when like the industriousness like matures , all the consumer prefer to have less ingredients , to have Nutri - musical score A , to have a good Cartesian product . ”
The full ingredients list for Dreamfarm ’s vegan mozzarella is as espouse : Almond base ( water , almond 25 % , oat ) , veg fibre , salt , agar - agar , rude aroma , ferments ( it uses a yeast - stylus starter to sour the almond base ) — which is considerably shorter than some vegan cheeses .
Others — such as a “ mozzarella flavour ” product produced by food brand Violife — have about the same amount of ingredients list . However Dreamfarm touts its imitation mozzarella as lower in fat and concentrated adipose tissue than Violife ’s rival product ( which contains coconut oil ) .
“ unremarkably in plant - based cheese … they apply a lot of like coconut meat rock oil or other fixings that are not super dependable for wellness , ” argues Menozzi , articulate the inauguration ’s strategy to develop a “ clean recording label ” mozzarella choice start with them selecting ingredients that could be sourced topically , in the Mediterranean sphere ( such as almonds develop in Italy and Spain ) .
“ In the mathematical product we do n’t have , fundamentally , saturated blubber — less than 1 % — so that was the main melodic theme to change the class both on the taste , and also on the ingredient , ” he adds .
When it come in to pricing , Dreamfarm ’s plant - based mozzarella is like to a “ good buffalo mozzarella ” , per Menozzi . In Italy , where the ware went on sale in May ( along with a plant - based spreadable cheese ) , it ’s price at € 3.60 for a 125 g ballock . ( The vegan cheese spread is cheaper still , priced for retail at just € 2.99 . )
It is n’t disclosing any sales agreement data yet , given it ’s still early days for the product and its food brand . But Menozzi says customers have been especially unrestrained for the vegan mozzarella , the more novel of the two product — and he says their plant - based mozzarella has been outselling rival vegan mozzarella products 5x in some supermarkets .
Organically , it also bewitch the tending of some online influencers . Plus they ’ve had a pair of pizza restaurant Sir Ernst Boris Chain lay in on the bill of fare already .
“ We did n’t vest one euro in marketing , we just go viral with the mozzarella with a lot of influencers , ” he enunciate . “ We did n’t even send them samples … They just went to the retail shop class , bought some pieces and show on Instagram what it looks like , how it ’s crazy to take out a right mozzarella from liquid . ”
“ With the mozzarella you have people really go into the supermarket to corrupt that merchandise … perhaps they ’re also doing a mass of kilometre because we are not yet tops well mete out — and they go there and they bribe five and they land some mozzarella to friends and other the great unwashed who like it , ” he add . “ Because it ’s something still quite new and super treasure . While the spread tall mallow is less advanced than mozzarella … so it ’s more like the junior brother of the mozzarella . ”
Dreamfarm is announcing the conclusion of a € 5 million pre - seed round of funding today , with investing follow from a couple of local business angels with tie to the food industry : Giampaolo Cagnin , a serial entrepreneur who founded Italiana Ingredienti , Campus , and Hi - Food ; and Francesco Mutti , the owner and CEO of the Mutti Group .
The first half of the daily round closed last year , per Menozzi , and was used to help fund their first product facility . And he confirms they plan to keep all their production in house . But the fresh tranche of support will go towards market expansion within Europe — with some of its products already on shelves in Spain . It ’s also ink a distribution deal to bring its vegan mozzarella to Belgium .
The first two+ years of the 2021 - founded startup ’s existence were dedicate to search and developing products . But they plan to funnel some of the new financial backing into more R&D , too . Menozzi allege Dreamfarm wants to develop vegan versions of other Hellenic Italian cheese : Stracciatella and burrata . He also say they may bet to explore plant life - base yogurt . Although that would come later — for now the focus is squarely on cheese ; and , specifically , on balmy , mozzarella - fashion cheeses .
“ At the moment we will focus on developing our core expertise — that is on mozzarella — and develop products that are near the same concept of mozzarella , ” he says , noting that making concentrated vegan cheeses tend to require using less sizable ingredients .
Doing a vegan mozzarella had its own challenge , too of course — not least getting the right grain . Which is why they get going with that mathematical product . “ It take a mickle of visitation and error to create the texture , ” he adds .
They are also continuing to tweak the formula of their flagship product — to see , for example , if they can further extend ledge living without compromising the Nutri - Score . And there they ’re search whether they can produce a adaptation that immobilize well .
How well the faux mozzarella melts is another consideration when it occur to pushing for the perfect ( classic ) Margherita pizza pie , vegan style . “ We would like to create a proper recipe for pizza as well . Because of course , with less fat , it is not fade at the moment like a proper mozzarella . But it ’s melting quite well , ” he remark .
This reputation was updated to correct the price of Dreamfarm ’s cheese spread ; its RRP is € 2.99 , not € 1.99 as we earlier stated
Bon Vivant toast take aim $ 15.9 M to brew up various animal - detached dairy farm protein
