These Sisters Grew Up On A Dairy Farm. They’ve Just Raised $2.8M for Oat Milk Cheese

Finnish oat-based cheese startup Mö Foods, founded by sisters raised on a dairy farm, has secured €2.4M ($2.8M) in funding to fuel its European expansion.

A decade ago, eco anxiety forced a lifestyle change for Annamari Jukkola and Marjaana Vuorio.

The siblings spent their childhood on a cattle farm, and dairy production was second nature to them. With the climate crisis intensifying, they decided to take a lead from their roots and modernise the very industry that they grew up in.

A year later, the sisters founded Mö Foods to reinvent the (cheese) wheel with another Finnish staple: oats. Today, the brand is the recipient of several awards for its oat milk innovations, which are available in major Nordic retailers.

To take them across Europe, Mö Foods has successfully closed a €2.4M ($2.8M) funding round led by Nordic Foodtech VC. It will allow the firm to expand its manufacturing volumes and production footprint.

“Growing up on a dairy farm gave us a respect for how cheese is made, and also for the value people place on it,” said Jukkola, who is the startup’s CEO. “We’re bringing that same quality and care to a new process, using oats to make something familiar, but lighter on resources. This funding helps us do that at scale.”

Speaking to Green Queen, she added: “Staying at the forefront of development is very important to us. We are investing both in the quality of our existing products and in creating new ones. Our goal is to offer oat-based cheese options for all major traditional cheese occasions, so there are still a few gaps to fill.”

Asked if the company has plans to expand beyond cheese, she said: “For now, our portfolio consists solely of cheeses, but we remain open to future opportunities – oats have great potential across many types of products.”

Stefan Lindberg, board chairman at Mö Foods, noted: “By combining deep food science with consumer understanding, Mö Foods has built a model that works at a time when most of the category is struggling to find one. Mö is showing that plant-based can be both premium and profitable.”

Zero-waste tech allows Mö Foods to eliminate oat sidestreams

Mö Foods has based its operations in an old dairy facility in Central Ostrobothnia, Lohtaja, utilising conventional dairy equipment. It uses Finnish oats to produce a plant-based milk, which is gently processed to create a cheese-like flavour and texture.

The company says its products match dairy cheeses on taste, texture and performance, and maintain a short ingredient list. For instance, the Mö Chavre, a goat’s cheese alternative, contains oat milk, coconut fat, modified starch, potato protein, salt, lactic acid, and calcium lactate.

These ingredients form the base of its entire lineup, which also includes shredded mozzarella, cream cheeses, two flavours of feta, and Gouda.

Given its origins, sustainability is a central focus for the company. Dairy accounts for 2.5% of Finland’s greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from methane, which is 86 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year period. Further, cattle farming takes up vast amounts of land and water, making milk and its derivatives some of the most resource-intensive foods globally.

For Mö Foods, oats are an optimal solution, providing massive reductions in emissions, water consumption, and land use. Plus, its zero-waste technology enables it to use the entirety of the grain, leaving no sidestreams at all.

“Our current production can already support high revenue – over €10M – but we’re actively investing to make our operations even more efficient and scalable,” said Jukkola. “This will allow us to grow faster and meet rising demand both in Finland and internationally.”

Mö Foods looks to license tech as part of expansion plans

Funding rounds for plant-based cheese are getting increasingly rarer, underlining the long-held perceptions of the category as inherently inferior to dairy. Mö Foods itself suggests that consumers are seeking easy-to-use products that meet their standards of taste, texture and meltability in what it deems a “post-vegan” era.

“While the plant-based boom has cooled off a bit, the overall trend is still upward – the plant-based transformation is happening. Mö Foods is entering the next phase of development: ‘vegan cheese 2.0’,” said Jukkola. “Investors recognised that we’re truly investing in products, technology, and high-quality ingredients, not just riding a trend.”

This is what makes it an outlier. The Mö Chevre cheese has won awards like the Finnish Food Innovation of the Year 2024 and Best No-Goat Vegan Cheese 2024. That year, the company’s sales were up by 88%, outpacing the growth of the domestic vegan cheese category by a factor of nearly five. This was driven by new product launches, expanded distribution, and consistent sell-through across major chains.

“Our 2025 revenue is around €1M. Both retail and foodservice are growing strongly, with channel growth ranging from 25% to 200%,” said Jukkola. “Our Greek-style cheeses have been particularly popular, and our specialty Chavre stands out. Growth is also strong for our new Gouda-style cheese.”

Mö Foods is now planning to license its technology to major European food producers, a model designed to accelerate category-wide adoption. “We are continuing to accelerate growth in the Nordics across both retail and HoReCa. We’ve just launched in Austria and will continue expanding there. In 2026, we plan to enter additional European markets,” the CEO said.

Mika Kukkurainen, partner at Nordic Foodtech VC said: “Mö is taking unique Finnish oats and their healthy properties to a completely new level. Added-value products, with unique technology, are the exact kind of food knowledge that we want to support and scale internationally.”