Dairy-Free Fromage: France’s Jay&Joy Bags €2M & Acquires Rival Startup Les Nouveaux Affineurs
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France’s Jay&Joy has secured €2M and acquired fellow vegan artisanal cheese maker Les Nouveaux Affineurs to expand its presence across Europe.
Just over 18 months after it was rescued from insolvency, Paris-based vegan cheesemaker Jay&Joy has turned its fortunes around with new funding and a takeover of its main rival.
The firm has secured €2M in investment and taken over fellow Parisian plant-based cheese startup Les Nouveaux Affineurs, which itself had a turbulent year in 2024, forcing it to halt production.
The deal will double Jay&Joy’s production capacity – adding an Ivry-sur-Seine site to complement its facility in Lacroix-Saint-Ouen – as well as its product portfolio, while keeping the Les Nouveaux Affineurs brand intact and retaining its 10 employees.
It will allow the companies to “create a veritable industrial scale-up with extensive product and technology portfolios”, according to Les Nouveaux Affeneurs founder Nour Akbaraly. He has now transitioned into the role of chief operating and innovation officer at Jay&Joy.
Greener pastures after a rough road for both brands
Founded a decade ago by Mary Carmen and Éric Jähnke, Jay&Joy was among France’s plant-based cheese leaders, having previously secured listings in 1,900 stores nationwide and customers in seven other countries.
But in early 2023, it stopped production after cases of listeriosis were linked to its cheeses. The halt in sales forced the company into receivership, before it was bought by an investment consortium including César Augier (a former sustainability associate at McKinsey) and VC firm High Flyers Capital, which led a concurrent €2M fundraise for the firm.
Augier took over as CEO and restarted production soon after, reestablishing Jay&Joy’s distribution channels and stepping up its expansion efforts both domestically and overseas. And after a turbulent 2023, the company saw revenues hike by 90% last year.
Les Nouveaux Affineurs, meanwhile, faced several challenges to its business in 2024, and had therefore been in talks with Jay&Joy for several months. “In the course of our discussions with César Augier, we understood that beyond being competitors, our companies shared strong values and a common ambition: to accelerate the development of plant-based food in Europe,” Akbaraly wrote on LinkedIn.
The takeover expands Jay&Joy’s offering from seven to 15 products, with its existing cheeses like Jean-Jacques and Janis (alternatives to Maroilles and feta, respectively) now complemented by Les Nouveaux Affineurs’s innovations such as L’Affiné d’Albert, La Bûche, and more.
“We will also continue our development in concert with Jay&Joy rather than in competition, and will strengthen our presence alongside the major cheesemakers,” wrote Akbaraly.
Latest investment will fuel new product launches and expansion
Jay&Joy plans to introduce four new products this year, including a mozzarella in May and two formats exclusive to foodservice. “When it comes to foodservice, there is a real demand from consumers, but also corporate decarbonisation targets with deadlines more or less distant. In the ongoing food transition, cheese is absolutely key,” said Augier.
Jay&Joy’s dairy-free cheeses already appear at sites of major hospitality companies like Hilton, Novotel, and Bvlgari Hotels. It is now also in advanced discussions with distributors like Transgourmet and Pomona, as well as catering giant Sodexo.
This expansion will be supported by the €2M it has raised in its latest funding round, which was supported by existing investors including the Demeter and Beyond Impact funds. “This integration is a key step in our entrepreneurial ambition. With Les Nouveaux Affineurs, Jay&Joy is asserting its business ambitions to create a genuine French champion in the plant sector,” said HappyVore co-founder Cédric Meston, a fellow investor in Jay&Joy and part of the team behind one of France’s handful of plant-based meat brands.
“Our ambition is to strengthen our presence in Europe and increase our impact with increasingly high-quality products that meet consumer expectations,” added Augier.
Non-dairy cheese now makes up 3.6% of Europe’s plant-based market, and was the fastest-growing vegan category in France, where its sales grew by 34%. That said, it is a tough and crowded market, dominated by players like Violife, Sheese and Bel Group’s Nurishh, but failing to meet many consumers’ expectations on taste and texture.
These trials were why Dutch vegan cheese brand Willicroft recently ceased operations, and why so many alternative protein startups are engaging in mergers and acquisitions.
Within the alt-dairy world, Indian superfood brand Nourish You bought One Good, UK-based The Compleat Food Group (formerly Winterbotham Darby) took over vegan cheesemaker Palace Culture in late 2023, and Finland’s Oddlygood acquired Planti and Rude Health. And just last month, US artisanal vegan cheese brand Vertage Foods was snapped up by fellow plant-based firm Misha’s Inc.