35. Julienne Bruno

Founder: Axel Katalan and Chi San

Year founded: 2020
Website: juliennebruno.com

When you go to the supermarket to pick up vegan products, more often than not you’ll run into a pale imitation of an animal-based original. Vegan cheese, plant-based meat, fake ‘facon’ bacon – they’re all trying to be something they’re not. 

Julienne Bruno wants to change the way food-lovers understand vegan food and carve out a niche of fresh inventions that prioritise taste. Born out of the frustration of hearing “oh that’s not too bad for a vegan range”, its co-founders argue there shouldn’t be a reason why vegan designs couldn’t be equally delicious as veggie or meat-based foods. 

After trialling different raw materials like soybeans, they finally landed on a game-changing soy-based flagship product: the Burella. 

Julienne Bruno’s Burrella brings a unique taste that expands and enriches the horizons of how vegan food can taste. Rather than settling for imitating the taste of a burrata, the Burrella brings its own separate offering. 

Julienne Bruno is also committed to cooking up treats that are genuinely better for the environment. All of its ingredients are GMO-free and devoid of palm oil. It also sources its soybeans from France as opposed to South America, where soybean production is often linked to deforestation. 

The brand’s commitment to sustainable, creatively evolving plant-based cuisine has garnered the attention of food lovers from all across the dietary spectrum, from flexitarians to vegans to omnivores. 

Its mission to bring delicious vegan products into the mainstream has also earned it the trust of investors, securing £6m in angel investment funding from Europe’s leading funds like Cherry Ventures, Seedcamp, and Nicoya. 

So far, Julienne Bruno has populated the shelves of Ocado, Whole Foods, Planet Organic, Harrods and Selfridges. Plus, it has also made it into the menu of The Big Mamma Group restaurants (including Pizza Pilgrims and Gail’s) where its vegan visions actually replaced competitor produce. 

The cherry tomato on top of all these achievements is the seal of approval that Julienne Bruno has earned from online foodies. Influencers from the plant-based, lifestyle, and fashion sphere have raved about its products, reaching an audience of over 1.8 million on social media. 

In the next five years, Julienne Bruno wants to become the Nestle of our generation. Its future in the F&B sector is both promising and well-seasoned. From increasing its portfolio, to growing its customer base internationally in Europe and North America, the startup is on the path to transform our perception of vegan foods for heavenly, herbivorous, eating.