Plant-based cheese has a texture problem. For Magi Richani, a lactose-intolerant engineer who grew up in Lebanon and worked in the oil industry, this wasn't just a market inefficiency. It was a technical challenge. Her company, Nobell Foods, is betting that the answer isn't in better blends of starches and oils, but in growing the exact dairy proteins that give cheese its functional magic, directly inside a soybean.
Nobell, which has recently rebranded its parent company to Alpine Bio, has raised over $100 million, including a $75 million Series B in 2021 led by Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures [Fast Company, July 2021] [AgFunderNews]. The core of the bet is casein, the primary protein in mammalian milk that forms micelles, giving cheese its unique ability to stretch and melt. By engineering soybeans to produce these proteins, Nobell aims to sidestep the animal entirely, creating a final product that is molecularly identical to dairy cheese but grown in a field.
The Protein as a Platform
The technical wedge is straightforward, if extraordinarily complex to execute. Nobell’s approach is to produce the foundational ingredient, casein, and then use it in traditional cheesemaking processes. The company holds patents for producing dairy proteins, including casein, in soybeans, extracting them, and using them in cheese production [Tracxn].
This is molecular farming, turning a commodity crop into a bioreactor. The company calls its engineered soybeans "Cheesebeans" [GFI, 2025]. The company claims its process uses 90% less water and land and results in 70% fewer emissions than conventional dairy [Pear VC].
The $75 Million Validation
The 2021 Series B round stands as a significant vote of confidence in both the technical premise and Richani’s leadership.
| Investor | Type |
|---|---|
| Breakthrough Energy Ventures | Lead Investor |
| Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) | Venture Capital |
| Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition | Venture Capital |
| AgFunder | Venture Capital |
| Fifty Years | Venture Capital |
The capital was earmarked for scaling protein production, expanding the team, and navigating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) self-affirmation process [AgFunderNews].
From Shell Engineer to Food Tech CEO
Founder Magi Richani’s path is atypical for a food tech CEO. Her background is in project engineering at Shell, an experience that likely informs a systems-level, capital-project mindset suited to building a new agricultural supply chain from the ground up [Fast Company, July 2021]. She started the company in 2016 and went through Y Combinator in 2017. The recent rebrand to Alpine Bio as the parent company suggests an ambition beyond cheese, pointing to a broader pipeline of plant-grown animal-identical ingredients [AgFunderNews].
The Road to the Grocery Aisle
Nobell harvested its first casein-containing soybean crop in 2024 [GFI, 2025]. Its stated goal is to begin public tastings of its animal-free mozzarella in 2025, with a commercial launch to follow [Breakthrough Energy Ventures Job Board, 2026]. The company is currently hiring for roles like Pilot Plant Associate, indicating it is moving from lab-scale research toward pilot production [BevJobs/Breakthrough Energy].
The Realistic Competitive Set
- Perfect Day. The incumbent in animal-identical dairy proteins, using precision fermentation. It has achieved regulatory approval and market presence for its whey protein.
- New Culture. Another precision fermentation company focused specifically on casein for mozzarella cheese.
- Climax Foods. Takes a different, data-science driven approach to plant-based cheese, using machine learning to discover optimal blends of existing plant proteins.
The Counterfactuals
The bet is large, the science is hard, and the clock is ticking. The capital raised needs to fund the journey from pilot harvest to cost-competitive commodity-scale production. The risks include the cost curve, the regulatory timeline for GRAS self-affirmation, and the adoption cycle for food manufacturers.