US artisan vegan cheesemaker Climax Foods has raised $6.5M, rebranded to Bettani Farms, and hired a new CEO in a major overhaul for the business.
Climax Foods is shaking things up with a new name, a new CEO, and a new funding round for its ultra-stretchy dairy-free cheeses.
The US startup has rebranded to Bettani Farms after securing $6.5M in the first closing of its Series A round. The financing was led by S2G Investments, with additional participation from new and existing backers like At One Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Manta Ray Ventures, and Toba Capital.
It takes the six-year-old firm’s total raised to $33.5M. It has also appointed former Califia Farms CFO Sandeep Patel as its new CEO, replacing founder Oliver Zahn (who is no longer with the company).
The developments mark a new era for the plant-based cheesemaker, which is switching focus from blue cheese to more market-friendly alternatives like mozzarella and feta. They’re built on Bettani’s plant-derived casein ingredient, Caseed, and will help it target the pizza industry.
Bettani eyes cheese success with vegan casein ingredient
The Bay Area-based startup uses AI to reverse-engineer what makes cheese taste good. Its former flagship cheese, Climax Blue, was made from pumpkin seeds, lima beans, hemp seeds, coconut fat and cocoa butter, and appeared on the menus of Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park and Dominique Crenn’s Atelier Crenn.
In 2024, the cheese was at the centre of an awards controversy. It was set to become the first vegan winner of the Good Food Awards, but was later disqualified thanks to a retrospective change in rules allegedly brought on by complaints from dairy cheesemakers.
The saga was widely covered in the media, and even made it onto a segment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who praised the product’s likeness to conventional blue cheese in a humorous review.
The company had struck a partnership with French dairy giant Bel Group to develop vegan versions of its iconic brands Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin.
But behind the scenes, it was not being spared from the challenges that have wrecked the alternative protein sector over the last couple of years. The startup ended up restructuring and laying off half of its staff, securing bridge funding to keep it afloat temporarily.
Now, it’s emerging from the slump with new capital and a fresh approach. Bettani’s cheeses aren’t just free from dairy; they also don’t contain nuts or soy. Instead, it is spotlighting Caseed, a plant-based protein derived from the seeds of (undisclosed) regenerative crops, which features a creamy texture, white colour, and neutral flavour profile.
It is Bettani’s non-dairy take on casein, the most abundant protein found in cow’s milk, which is responsible for the meltability and stretchability of cheese. The approach is “more cost-competitive” than companies employing precision fermentation to develop bioidentical casein, according to the company.
Can Bettani be the oat milk of pizza?
Caseed mimics the functionality and mouthfeel of casein to deliver protein-rich dairy-free cheeses like mozzarella, Cheddar, feta, Monterey Jack, and more.
The ingredient allows Bettani to hit on several pain points of vegan cheese, which is one of the more polarising alternatives. Most Americans are looking to consume more protein, a nutrient that non-dairy cheese is usually lacking in.
And while plant-based milk is very much part of the mainstream, dairy-free cheese still suffers from poor consumer perceptions, thanks to an often sticky texture and a lack of melting and stretching.
It’s why dollar sales of these products fell by 4% to $218M last year, and household penetration narrowed to 4%. In fact, dairy-free alternatives made up just 1% of the overall cheese market in each of the previous three years.
But Bettani is hoping to change that with its Caseed-powered cheeses, which will contain 12-20g of protein per 100g (between 80% and 100% of the protein content found in conventional cheeses). It will focus on selling the ingredient and the resultant cheeses to frozen food makers, foodservice operators, and existing vegan brands looking to enhance their formulations.
“Bettani is poised to do for pizza what oat milk has done for coffee,” said Patel. “Just as oat won coffee over the last five years with its superior taste, mouthfeel, performance, and allergen profile, our Caseed-powered cheeses deliver the melt, stretch, texture, and flavour consumers crave in pizza and other hot foods – without the allergens and high carbon footprint of dairy.
“Our Caseed protein also powers great non-melty cheeses, such as feta, goat, and cream cheese, adding sensory delight and protein to otherwise animal-free foods like salads, dips, and bagels.”
Bettani’s new investors believe it’s poised for success. Sanjeev Krishnan, managing partner at S2G, remarked: “As Bettani starts this new chapter, we believe it’s clear the company has the strong leadership and vision needed to make protein-rich, dairy-free cheeses commonplace.”
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