Petaluma alternative dairy startup Miyoko’s Creamery has raised nearly $7 million in additional equity funding, according to recent company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the Form D filing from May 24, Miyoko’s raised $6,999,990 from undisclosed investors with the involvement of CEO Miyoko Schinner, who founded the company in 2014. The new cash brings the vegan butter and cheese producer’s total raised to about $78.6 million.
PitchBook pegs the valuation of the company at $219 million following the latest tranche. Miyoko’s Creamery’s biggest recent haul was a $52 million Series C round announced in August, shortly after which the company scored a landmark legal victory from a lawsuit initiated in 2020 that ultimately allowed Miyoko's to use labeling descriptions such as "butter," "lactose-free" and "cruelty-free" for its fermented product derived from cashews and other plants.
Intelligence 360, which first reported the new funding, wrote that the money will “aid in aggressively expanding the company, as well as broaden and accelerate product development.”
Miyoko’s Creamery was not immediately available for comment on the identity of the new investors or where they plan to spend the money, but I’ll update this story if I hear back.
Check out what the CEO and others on the industry's bleeding edge had to say at our Food & Beverage Innovators forum a year ago.
The bearish outlook clouding today’s economy is a bigger issue for plant-based companies such as Miyoko’s than in the cell-cultivated space where more startups are still in the research and development stage and are sprinting — but still years away for most — from having their products on local supermarket shelves. Plant-based companies whose products have been available to consumers for years are dealing with a recent valuation and sales slump while fine-tuning their product lineups and hoping to generate momentum for discovery spending.
Late last year Miyoko's launched a "liquid" pizza mozzarella that pours like a sauce and bakes into a stretchy cheese. Most of its products are currently available in over 30,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada and export to South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore markets.
