New Culture uses precision fermentation to produce milk casein proteins (alpha, beta and kappa caseins) by inserting DNA sequences into microbes and harvesting the expressed proteins to make mozzarella. The collected casein is blended with water, plant-based fats, vitamins and minerals to create a cheese that investors say tastes, smells and stretches like milk cheese and is cholesterol- and lactose-free. The company plans to first distribute its mozzarella through pizzerias around the country beginning next year and sees potential to expand into yogurts, ice cream and milk in the future, while keeping the near-term focus on mozzarella. New Culture is a three-year-old, Bay Area-based startup. The fundraising is intended to commercialize its animal-free cheese and scale production. Market context in the article notes the U.S. cheese market was $34.3 billion in 2019 (projected to $45.5 billion by 2027) while vegan cheese was about $1.2 billion in 2019 (projected to $4.4 billion by 2027). New Culture develops animal-free dairy cheese by producing dairy proteins via fermentation and combining them with plant-based fats, sugars and traditional cheese-making processes. Founded in late 2018 and led by CEO Matt Gibson and CSO Inja Radman, the company aims to replicate dairy cheese without animals. It closed a $3.5M seed round to support its next phase. The funds will be used to set up an R&D and fermentation facility and to grow the team. The round was led by Evolv Ventures with participation from Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC and SOSV. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, New Culture is focused on building fermentation capacity to advance its cheese production. New Culture is developing dairy cheese by producing essential dairy proteins (casein) through microbial fermentation, enabling what they call “cow cheese without the cow.” Their first product will be fresh mozzarella, created by combining microbially produced casein with plant-based lipids, sugars and minerals. The team is still in development, recreating complex casein micelles and relying on strong protein-engineering expertise. They expect to launch in select US restaurants in 18–24 months and already maintain a waiting list on their website for early tasters. Target customers are vegetarians, flexitarians and other conscious plant-based consumers, with plans to later pursue mainstream dairy consumers. Financially, the company secured $200K in pre-seed funding from IndioBio, a San Francisco–based science accelerator that specializes in biotech food firms.

Total raised

$29M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Nov 2021