Oddlygood Raises $28M, Looks to Expand U.S. Presence
Alt-dairy producer Oddlygood wants to be the next alt-dairy dynamo, and now it’s got the cash to do so. The Finnish company announced today that it had raised $28 million from Mandatum Asset Management (MAM) with plans to invest it into a U.S. expansion.
As a result of the deal, Helsinki-based Mandatum Asset Management will become a minority shareholder in the company and hold a seat on the company’s board of directors. Assets for this investment come from Mandatum Asset Management’s Finnish clients. Oddlygood was founded as a part of Finnish food company Valio, which in the U.S. also has the Finlandia Cheese line of products. Oddlygood was spun off as its own company this past spring but Valio has continued to be the company’s majority shareholder.
“We will use Mandatum’s financing to accelerate the implementation of our growth strategy and to deepen our business development expertise,” Oddlygood Global’s CEO Niko Vuorenmaa said in a statement.
Currently Oddlygood’s non-dairy milks, yogurts and cheeses are sold in Finland, Sweden, the U.K, Russia and other Baltic countries. The company claims its sales have doubled every year since its inception in 2018. In Sweden, Oddlygood reports that its sales have grown 131%, as compared to other oat-based dairy products which have only grown by 12%, and that the company has the second largest market share in oat-based beverages.
Oddlygood expanded into the U.S. market earlier this year, opening a headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey. To-date, the company has only sold its cheeses to U.S. foodservice providers, with a focus on pizza shops. As part of the funding, Oddlygood will finish construction on its Northern California plant, which will produce Oddlygood Oat yogurt, with an aim to ramp up sales in 2022.
In addition to an emphasis on North America, the oat-milk brand also plans to continue to grow distribution and velocities in its existing European markets.
“With the investment, Oddlygood Global will be able to accelerate the implementation of its growth strategy by developing its means of production, expanding its marketing efforts and hiring new professionals with global growth in mind,” Alexander Antas, Head of Private Equity at MAM, said in a release.
Oddlygood will join a spate of brands all trying to become the category leaders in the U.S., some of which were also originally overseas success stories, such as NotCo’s non-dairy milk, which launched in Chile in 2018 before expanding to the US in 2021. However, the company’s closest competitor — both in terms of base ingredient and origin story — is fellow European import, Oatly. Like Oddlygood, Oatly has invested heavily in U.S. manufacturing in order to gain a leg up on the competition, though the brand has continuously struggled to meet demand as it works to swiftly open up new production facilities in the U.S. and abroad.
However, Oddlygood does have an opportunity to stand out from Oatly by focusing on cheese — a product line Oatly has only discussed tackling in the future. That said, there is still plenty of plant-based cheese competition from the likes of Good Planet, Miyoko’s, Chao, Moocho, Daiya and private label offerings.
According to the Good Food Institute (GFI) sales of plant-based cheese hit $270 million in 2020, up from $190 million in 2019. The sub category grew sales 42% in 2020, the GFI and Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA) found, almost twice the rate of conventional cheese.
The oat milk category has also become a competitive set; beyond Oatly products from Planet Oat, Califia Farms and Chobani have carved out national footprints.
