French plant-based creamery startup Jay&Joy has raised €2 million in a fundraising round led by High Flyers Capital.
Additional investors include Jean-Baptiste Rudelle (founder of Criteo), Guillaume Dubois and Cédric Meston (co-founders of HappyVore), and other private investors.
Jay&Joy, which describes itself as the first plant-based creamery in France, has been making organic, artisan vegan cheeses from almond milk, cashew nuts, and coconut since 2014.
New CEO
A pioneer in the field, the startup rapidly expanded to other European countries such as Germany, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal. In February, Jay&Joy landed in the UK market.
But in January 2023, in France, a massive recall of Jay&Joy products was issued after several cases of listeria caused premature delivery in several women.
A few months after the incident, Mary Carmen and Éric Jähnke, Jay&Joy’s founders, led the company’s reigns to receivership César Augier, who took over the company, saved the jobs, and the industrial site. Later he became the company’s CEO and raised the new capital.
“It was quite easy to convince these investors,” Augier told the media outlet Maddyness.
“It’s a very buoyant market, and one that’s very much in tune with the times. This is a company which, if it hadn’t gone through the quality crisis it did, could claim to be the French leader in this sector,” he added.
New chapter
With the new funds, the vegan cheese company aims to hire talent, invest in R&D, and increase production at its facility in Hauts-de-France to expand to other markets.
The company employs 25 people and, according to Augier, is poised to regain its position as the leader plant-based creamery.
To achieve these ambitious goals, the company has assembled a quality control team to ensure that the highest production standards established by the health authorities are followed.
“Mistakes were made,” Augier commented. Without minimizing for a moment, because it’s terrible what happened, listeria remains a fairly classic problem in the food industry, and particularly in cheese. And when you have the right people around you, and put the right measures in place, it’s a problem that can be managed. We’re currently working with a highly qualified quality team to implement all these measures; because with a sufficiently experienced quality team, these problems would never have arisen.”
In the coming months, Jay&Joy will relaunch the production and commercialisation of its range of plant-based cheeses.
“It is an immense pleasure to take the helm of a company that works towards modernising French culinary tradition with exquisite products that are both better for health and the planet,” said Augier.
