A common pain to many plant-based eaters, investor and cheese lover Frank Riedel really missed his melty fix after switching to a vegan lifestyle. “To go plant-based is a conscious decision and an everyday effort. Cheese is a difficult one for me. The taste, the smell, the food culture around it. But I also don’t want it to harm the planet, animals, or our health.” The Mondarella founder unpacks what goes way back: “My grandparents had a farm in the north of Germany, and I loved spending my holidays there. The animals, the fields and gardens. The food! Everything felt more real, natural, and exciting. On the other hand, I remember being shocked and scared of how some of the food was produced. As a child, you instinctively know it’s wrong.”

Seeing most current choices of vegan cheese as underwhelming, unhealthy, or too expensive, he was pleased to meet pioneers with the exact same mission. “When I met Piero Brunetti, my business partner who had passionately started working on the world’s first almond-based vegan mozzarella, I knew that together we could change that for good.” During their first year in business, Monderella sold about 120,000 cheeses at supermarkets, including Lidl and Kaufland, and in food service. In January 2022 alone, a year after launching, it was 40,000 units.