Plant-based food developer Julienne Bruno adds £5 million to the press

In a world where just about every plant-based food manufacturer is scrambling to make their offer “as good as” or “just like X”, London’s Julienne Bruno is taking the road less traveled. And making all the difference.

Founded in late 2020 by Pointr co-founder Axel Katalan, Julienne Bruno, which takes its name from the classic vegetable cuts, has announced the closure of its seed round at £5 million. The round was led by Cherry Ventures and saw participation from Outsized Ventures and existing investors Seedcamp and Nicoya.

The round is aimed at supporting Julienne Bruno’s continued overall growth as well as expansion plans that include partnerships with UK nationwide retailers such as Selfridges London, Holland & Barrett, and Whole Foods Market.

To understand the goals of Julienne Bruno is to venture far, but not too far, beyond what you and I have come to know as “food”. By this I mean simply: Julienne Bruno isn’t recreating plant-based versions of traditional eats, rather, in the company’s own wording, offering, “a different perspective on plant-based food, creating familiar but new products for people to enjoy due to the quality of them, not because they’re vegan.”

This is evidenced in the brand’s ‘Collection 01’ series, a dairy-free version of what I would call cheese. Technically speaking, Burrella, Crematta and Superstraccia are not cheese. 

But if it looks like cheese, smells like cheese, and tastes like cheese, it’s cheese, right? 

In the words of Seedcamp’s Carlos Eduardo Espinal, “Julienne Bruno's Collection 01 is not only a more sustainable and ethical alternative to dairy products but also tastes even better! Axel and his team are elevating the dairy-free food experience without compromising on taste or texture!”

And if you’re wondering where the guy who co-founded an indoor mapping startup gets the goods to go off and revolutionse the way we look at vegan foods, well, the answer lies, at least in part in the team he’s assembled around him.

The Julienne Bruno lineup includes multiple Michelin Star awards winner, and previously Head of Creativity at El Bulli, Founder Tickets Restaurant, Hoja Santa, and Enigma, to name a few, Albert Adria, former Head of Food for Alan Yau Projects, starting with Head Chef at Wagamama (1992), Hakkasan, Busaba, and so on, Chi San, former General Manager of Uber Eats UK & Ireland and part of the founding team, Sunjiv Shah, and Board Advisor Alan Yau MBE, most known for founding numerous ventures in gastronomy such as Hakkasan, Wagamama, Busaba Eathai and Park Chinois.

Not. Too. Shabby.

On the investment, Cherry Ventures’ founding Partner Christian Meermann concludes, “At remarkable speed – less than a year of development – the Julienne Bruno team has created and brought the best tasting dairy-free, plant-based cheese to market.”