Bandit Makes Off With $1.5 M For Dairy-Free Cheese

Plant-based cheese maker formerly known as Conscious Cultures announced today it has dropped its former moniker in favor of the more “playful” name Bandit, in an attempt to better highlight its scrappy origin, said founder and CEO Bo Babaki.

Babaki, who began experimenting with cave-aged, dairy-free cheeses and producing them in the basement of a Philadelphia yoga studio in 2018, has grown Bandit’s portfolio into a 6-SKU lineup with a national distribution footprint.

“Bandit is an ode to our humble beginning hustling cheese from Philly to Brooklyn using cave-modified household refrigerators in the basement of a yoga studio,” Babaki said. “Our rebrand as Bandit evokes the origins of our playful spirit while staying true to our ethos at our core.”

In addition to its new identity, Bandit announced the closing of a $1.5 million seed round, led by VC firm Prime Movers Lab. The funding will be used to continue scaling its production and ramp up new consumer acquisition, according to the release.

“The Bandit team is pushing the boundaries of cultured, plant-based milks, producing the most compelling vegan cheeses on the market,” said Prime Movers Lab Partner and Bandit Board Member, Gaetano Crupi, in a press release. “We have been looking for a dairy-alternative investment, and at the end of the day, Bandit just tasted better than anything else we tried. They make delicious plant-based foods that will find broad acceptance among chefs at elite restaurants as well as the average American consumer shopping the aisles of their neighborhood grocery store.”

Bandit will also expand the distribution of its cashew and coconut-based cheeses at retail, adding new stores across Northern California, Texas, and Illinois in the coming months. The brand currently makes two cave-aged cheese wheel varieties, dubbed Barn Cat and Maverick; two logs, a Sharp Pimento and Fruit + Nut variety; in addition to two spreads, the Philly Spread and the Fresh Mozz.

Aiming to stand out in the crowded plant-based space, Bandit differentiates itself from some of the major players through its application of traditional cheesemaking techniques to plant-based ingredients. While many plant-based cheeses are made with an emulsified combination of oils, starch and flavors to mimic the taste of its conventional counterpart, Bandits cheeses are made with live cultures and bacteria through a process known as affinage, meaning the cheeses are tended to as they aged in temperature-regulated “caves.”

According to The Good Food Institute (GFI), the plant-based dairy market is currently worth over $2.5 billion and accounts for 35% of the total plant-based market. It has also seen a significant uptick (+70%) in investment, with startups garnering approximately $1.4 billion in funding last year.

Brands like Canada-based Future of Cheese and California-based Miyoko’s Creamery have taken similar approaches to Bandit, bringing live cultures and traditional cheesemaking techniques to the plant-based space. Earlier this year, the latter discontinued a new product line claiming that it had tried the “market-dominated” oil-starch-flavor method for its new shreds line but shortly after the product’s launch, recognized this method compromised its brand values to produce nutrient-dense cheeses.