Cultured vegan cheese start-up Stockeld Dreamery closes doors after six years

Stockeld Dreamery, a producer of plant-based cheese products, is closing its doors after a six-year journey, due to the current challenging economic environment for start-ups in the category.

In a statement shared on LinkedIn yesterday (23 October 2025), the company’s co-founder and CEO, Sorosh Tavakoli, said that the “intense decline” in plant-based food in recent years has made it “nearly impossible” for an independent vegan cheese company to grow.

He wrote: “Even worse, our ambitions to sell our cheese to dairy eaters feel further away than ever. As we prepared for another fundraise, we saw that we simply didn’t have the momentum to justify more capital, so we decided to close in a responsible way.”

The company, headquartered in Sweden with additional operations in the US, was founded in 2019 as Noquo Foods. Evolving into Stockeld Dreamery since, the company developed cultured plant-based cheese products made from fermented legumes.

Since its establishment, the start-up raised $20 million in funding and broadened its portfolio to include cheddar-style slices as well as a cream cheese variant.

“We knew success would demand something extraordinary and we came close, but as the market fell, it just got so much harder than we ever expected,” Tavakoli wrote in his statement.

“Of everything we built, the culture is what I’m most proud of. It brought out the best in us – a unique combination of trust, creativity and joy, even in hard times. It has been a privilege

to experience that kind of authenticity and flow together.”

Tavakoli revealed that the company’s entire team stayed to support the wind down, sale of equipment, closing of the offices and labs, and selling the business’ remaining inventory.

The brand will now be gradually delisted from foodservice menus and retail shelves in the coming months. Tavakoli added that the team is in conversation about a new home for its intellectual property (IP) and would welcome interest from potential buyers.

The news comes amid a challenging environment for start-ups in the plant-based and alternative protein sectors, as brands have struggled to maintain a competitive edge and secure investment following the pre-pandemic boom.

This year has seen several other start-ups in the space cease operations, including French seafood alternatives company Olala Foods, and US plant-based meat start-up Sundial Foods.

Consolidation has continued throughout the industry as market conditions have put considerable strain on smaller brands in recent years.

Notable M&A deals this year included the acquisition of the plant-based ready meal brand Allplants out of administration – Ella Mills’ Plants business bought the brand’s customer data and certain assets, while plant-based recipe kit start-up Grubby snapped up Allplants’ product recipes.

Vivera, an alt-meat brand owned by meat giant JBS, also hit the headlines when it acquired The Vegetarian Butcher from Unilever earlier this year. The two brands recently unveiled their new joint brand identity, The Vegetarian Butcher Collective.