Investors back cheesier animal-free mozzarella

In California, startup New Culture has raised $25 million as it works to make good on its promise of putting a better animal-free mozzarella on Bay Area slices in 2022. The funds will be used to add production capacity and staff. 

Unlike vegan mozzarellas that attempt to mimic the melty goodness of cheese through creative use of plant-based ingredients, New Culture’s mozzarella uses actual dairy protein casein, albeit made in a fermenter and not on a farm. The company is then able to use traditional cheese-making methods to create a mozzarella that is identical to its conventional, dairy-based mozzarella. 

The oversubscribed Series A was led by Ahren Innovation Capital and CPT Capital. ADM Ventures, Be8 Ventures, Evolv, SOSV, and S2G Ventures also participated. 

“We’re thrilled to close our Series A with an incredible syndicate of existing and new investors,” New Culture co-founders Gibson and Inja Radman say in a press statement. “We can’t wait to dive into this next phase of scale-up and production to offer our delicious, melty, animal-free cheese to pizza lovers all across the country.”