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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Miyoko's Creamery

Miyoko’s Creamery Parts Ways With Namesake Founder, Sues for Stolen IP

Last week, it came to light that pioneering vegan cheese entrepreneur Miyoko Schinner had not only parted ways with her namesake company, but that the split between the founder and the company she started had turned acrimonious with Miyoko’s Creamery suing Schinner for stealing company information, including the formulations for some of the brand’s products.

The news of Schinner’s departure broke on Thursday when the company issued a press release. The release said the company and Schinner had “parted ways as the company enters a new stage of growth” and that they had engaged with an executive search firm to find a leader to take the company “into its next stage of growth.”

A day later, news broke that the company had filed suit in California, accusing the founder of stealing critical IP and intentionally disrupting company operations as she hatched a plan to start a competing company.

“Instead of facilitating an orderly transition, following her termination as CEO, Schinner hatched a plot to steal the Company’s property, trade secrets, and confidential information so that she could create a competing company,” Miyoko’s said in the complaint, according to legal reporting site Law360. The company went on to claim that Schinner had downloaded 24 thousand documents from the company’s cloud storage, taken cheese cultures and new product prototypes from Miyoko Creamery’s warehouse, and had recruited other employees of the company to participate in the “scheme.”

After the company broke the news of Schinner’s departure via a press release, Schinner responded on Linkedin and said her removal as CEO occurred in June of 2022 and that “negotiations for my continued involvement stalled before Christmas.”

And on Sunday, Schinner posted again on Linkedin, responding to the news of the lawsuit:

I am shocked that certain board members have decided to file a lawsuit against me. There are wild untruths about me that are designed to destroy me and get me out of the way. I have been cooperative with the Company since my termination.
 
I fail to see how this is adding value to the brand that I — and other values-driven, passionate vegan former employees — worked so hard to build.
 
While I am eager to bring the truth to light, I am going to move with the care necessary to ensure that I am operating in accordance with my fiduciary duties as a Director and with applicable legal rules and guidelines. (while I remain a Director, I am uncertain of how much sway or say I actually have). As always, I thank you for your trust, your patience, and your support.   

It is shocking to see the company sue its namesake founder, a high-profile entrepreneur and well-regarded industry pioneer. No doubt, the company knew it would suffer significant brand damage as news of the accusations spilled into public view, but apparently felt taking such drastic action was necessary.

We’ll keep following this story as it unfolds…

Plant-based Cheesemaker Miyoko’s Creamery Raises $52M Series C

Miyoko’s Creamery, which makes plant-based cheese and butter, announced today that it has raised $52 million in Series C funding. PowerPlant Partners led the round, putting in $40 million, with participation from Cult Capital, Obvious Ventures, Stray Dog and CPT Capital.

Miyoko’s makes a range of vegan dairy products including cultured butter, mozzarella, cheese slices, artisanal cheese wheels and cheese spreads made from fermented plant-milks. The company’s products are currently available in 30,000 stores across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore. With its new funding, Miyoko’s said it will advance both its distribution and product innovation to get “higher nutrient density, performance and flavor.”

According to the Good Food Institute (GFI), the plant-based butter category grew 36 percent from 2019 to 2020 and the category is now worth $275 million in the U.S. GFI data also shows the market for plant-based cheese is even greater with sales of those products growing 42 percent from 2019 to 2020 to make that category worth $270 million.

And where there are growing sales, there are also startups creating products to sell. Miyoko’s is among a rising co-hort of companies offering new and improved plant-based cheeses. Nobell Foods just came out of stealth mode a couple weeks back and announced it has raised $75 million. Stockeld Dreamery launched its first feta-like plant-based cheese in Sweden in May. And Grounded Foods‘ vegan cheese sauce and spread is available for purchase as well.

In its funding announcement today, Miyoko’s said that this year it will launch a liquid pizza mozzarella that pours out like sauce and bakes up into stretchy cheese. The company is also working on a reformulation of its Medium Cheddar and Pepper Jack cheeses.

Spoon founder Mike Wolf sat down with Miyoko’s Creamery Founder, Miyoko Schinner a few months back to talk about her fascinating backstory, which includes run-ins with both the Japanese mafia and a legal battle with the state of California.

Food Tech Show: Building The Plant-Based Creamery with Miyoko Schinner

Miyoko Schinner has had an amazing journey as a plant-based food entrepreneur.

But that doesn’t mean it was easy. Whether it was the early days in Japan where she ran into the Japanese mafia or her initial struggles trying to scale production for her plant-based cheese recipes in the early days of Miyoko’s Creamery, Schinner’s overcome a number of challenges to get to where she is today as one of the most impactful leaders in today’s plant-based food market.

In this episode of The Food Tech Show, I talk to Miyoko about:

  • Her decision to become vegan and how that shaped her career
  • About becoming a plant-based cookbook author
  • The challenges of raising capital for her first company in the 90s
  • Launching Miyoko’s Kitchen and how it was much easier to find interest for her second startup
  • How she overcame the challenges of scaling production towards large production batches for her plant-based dairy products
  • Her work to help farmers transition towards a post-animal agriculture economy
  • Her legal battle with the state of California over the language to describe plant-based cheese and dairy products

You can hear the story by listen to the podcast in the player below, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.