Valued at Half a Billion Dollars, and Without Cows: Is Remilk Poised to Transform the Dairy Industry?

Aviv Wolf, the young 34-year-old CEO of dairy-protein company Remilk, is known to walk around supermarkets in Tel Aviv and near the company’s offices in Ness Ziona. He approaches the milk shelves with eager anticipation, waiting to see which shoppers pick up the white-and-blue bottle that Remilk launched with Gad Dairies under the brand “The New Milk.” The drink, based on fermented milk proteins produced in the lab, received a major boost last month with an advertising campaign starring Eyal Shani, billboards, and prominent placement in the refrigerated sections of retail chains. It is now a direct competitor to Strauss’s parallel brand, “Cowfree,” which was launched last September. ● TECH-IL Conference: Globes to reveal its ranking of the most promising startups ● Readers’ choice in the ranking of the most promising startups: the quantum computing company from Ness Ziona

“I see people putting ‘The New Milk’ in their carts, and that is the most exciting part of this whole journey, we worked very hard to get to this point,” Wolf says. The drink is also receiving pride of place in branches of major discount chains such as Osher Ad and Rami Levy, where it is sold at competitive prices in the milk-alternatives category. “We are very strong among the kosher-observant public,” he adds, “they had been waiting a long time for a product that can be added to coffee and drunk without concern.”

Aviv Wolf, CEO and co-founder of Remilk Personal: 34, married, lives in Tel Aviv Professional: Served as a combat officer in Sayeret Matkal, discharged at the rank of captain. Holds a secondary-school education. One more thing: Says he has never lost a game of ping-pong

Ambitious vision Remilk was born during the COVID era with an ambitious vision, to produce milk without a cow. It was founded amid a wave of startups trying to bring alternative products to market, but only a few survived. Remilk not only survived, it now operates from a modern laboratory building and employs about 100 people, including dozens of biology and food experts, 30 of them with doctorates. The achievement came despite a series of challenges, including changes in the business model, delays in going to market, and the departure of board members. Now, the milk drink launched earlier this year is beginning to generate steady revenue.

Under the partnership with Gad, Remilk receives not only half the revenues, but also significant brand exposure on the packaging. Four years ago, when it was only two years old, Remilk won the readers’ choice prize in Globes’ ranking of the most promising startups. This coming Wednesday, Globes will publish its list of the 10 most promising startups for 2026 as part of the TECH IL conference, and it seems that Remilk is no longer content with just being a promise, it is beginning to deliver on it.

According to market research data from StoreNext obtained by Globes, since the product’s launch at the start of the year, the partnership between Remilk and Gad Dairies has generated revenues of about NIS 7 million from the sale of about 600,000 bottles. Remilk leads the cow-free milk category with a 72.4% market share, while Strauss’s competitor, “Cowfree,” holds 27.6%. In the alternative beverages arena, “The New Milk” ranks as the fifth-largest brand, behind established players such as Tnuva, with soy and oats. According to a senior retailer, the company has even surpassed the international brand Alpro in sales pace. Industry estimates are that Remilk will end 2026 with revenues of tens of millions of shekels.

However, the road to profitability is still long. The yeast fermentation process at the heart of milk production remains expensive and places significant production costs on Remilk and its partner dairies.

Cream, butter and yogurts Although it raised capital from veteran dairies such as Tnuva and Central Bottling Company, the owner of Tara, Wolf chose to move forward דווקא with Gad Dairies, the newer player on the stock exchange. “We were in talks with all the players in the market and received very different proposals in terms of business structure and the nature of the partnership,” Wolf explains. “We made a clean business decision to go with Gad because it offered the most suitable partnership.”

Unlike competing products, Remilk insisted that its brand appear on every package and not be hidden behind the dairy company. “We are not a raw-materials company, we are a brand,” Wolf stresses. “In the dairy, drinks and cheese segments alone, we have registered 10 patents. It is important to us to create perhaps a more complex partnership, but one that makes it possible to ensure the product reaches the consumer with high quality and at a minimal price.”

Remilk and Gad established an equal partnership operating as an independent business unit. This is an unusual collaboration, since Gad does not have a plant for producing raw milk, while it would have been preferable for Remilk to work with a standard manufacturer and integrate its technology into existing production lines. To bridge the gap, the two companies turned to the Spanish dairy Pascual, the largest in the country, which underwent a strict qualification process and received kosher-for-Passover approval after a thorough cleaning process.

“We started with target audiences that have specific needs, kosher consumers, vegans and people with lactose sensitivity,” says Wolf. “Today we are also seeing a nice split among regular milk consumers, who choose the product because of its kosher certification or because of its nutritional values, 40% less sugar and no lactose. However, it is milk for all intents and purposes, so anyone who suffers from a milk-protein allergy cannot consume it.”

The launch was not without problems. The vanilla drink launched by the two companies received positive reviews, but was removed from shelves for technical reasons and is expected to return soon. In parallel, following consumer feedback about the coconut flavor, the production formula was updated and the new version is expected to reach shelves in the coming weeks.

“We identify two main demand patterns,” Wolf explains. “First, the kosher-consumer audience looking for cream, butter or yogurt, products that will solve the quality gap in existing kosher substitutes. We are already receiving videos from customers cooking and baking with the drink, making malabi and cookies and blintzes in the morning, but to reach serious culinary use, dedicated solutions such as cream and butter are needed.”

The second demand, he says, comes from the milk-alternatives market, now dominated by soy, oats and nuts: “Consumers in those worlds have been given an answer in beverages, but they are still left with a poor offering in cheese and yogurt, this is a blue ocean for us. While oat drinks hold 15% of the milk market, in yogurt their share is only 3%. We have set up labs that develop the full range of dairy products, from yogurts and cheeses to ice cream. Every product currently in the dairy refrigerator is in development with us. This year we will already launch more products, and over the coming years we will come out with dozens of them.”

“The New Milk” by Remilk / Photo: Remilk

“I had a vague vision” Wolf grew up in Aloni Abba, a community that was once a farming moshav, in a family of farmers. “My mother grew up in my grandfather’s cowshed, and he fought for agriculture until his last day. But dairying is a very difficult field, the economics there do not really work, beyond the environmental and moral challenges. Raising cows to produce food is a completely inefficient method, and that is why we see chronic phenomena of reforms, shortages and government subsidies.”

After eight years in Sayeret Matkal, which he completed at the rank of captain, Wolf left for civilian life with “a lot of a sense of capability and ambition to solve global problems.” According to him, the usual path, founding a cyber company and raising capital from Sequoia Capital, interested him less. “I wanted to dedicate my time to solving big problems of humanity. As a vegetarian, one of the ideas running through my head was to find a way to produce cow’s milk without a cow.”

A mutual friend introduced him to Dr. Uri Kochavi, a biochemist from the Weizmann Institute who specializes in proteins. Kochavi, who was familiar with the laboratory technology for producing enzymes and medicines using yeast in a fermentation process, suggested applying the same method to milk protein. “I am not a biochemist, I did not study at university and I did not have a technological solution,” Wolf admits. “I had the vague vision, cow’s milk without a cow, Uri brought the how. There is something about the environment of elite units, when you work with high-quality, mission-driven people, you learn to dream big. Everything you imagine, you learn can be done, even if it seems impossible.”

The race for the perfect taste Remilk is one of the pioneers in the field of milk proteins produced through fermentation. The process is similar to making wine or sourdough bread, but far more sophisticated: the company inserts a genetic segment identical to that of a cow into the yeast nucleus and replicates it under laboratory conditions. The result is a protein completely identical to that found in animal milk, but one that contains no DNA, cholesterol, hormones or antibiotic residues.

Although traditionally this is an expensive process, companies in the field are gradually lowering production costs by developing yeast strains that are resistant and highly productive. In Remilk’s labs, a process of “artificial evolution” makes it possible to test dozens of yeast strains at once and prioritize those that demonstrate the highest efficiency.

Remilk is not operating alone. The competitors are breathing down its neck: while the Israeli company Imagindairy is behind Strauss’s white cheese “Symphony,” the proteins for Yotvata’s Cowfree drink are supplied by the Indian-American company Perfect Day. On the international stage, the Dutch company Vivici is building a huge fermentation plant in Indiana, and the Danish company 21st Bio provides technological solutions to increase production output.

The entire industry is facing complex challenges. Perfect Day, the largest company in the field, with $800 million in fundraising and a market value of about $1.65 billion, according to PitchBook, has experienced management turmoil that included the departure of founders, legal disputes with partners and production delays. Remilk has also not escaped the industry’s “growing pains.” In 2022 the company planned to establish a fermentation plant in Denmark, but ultimately backed away from the move.

“Our main challenge is production volume and lowering costs,” Wolf explains. “We had two options, raise capital and build an independent plant, a safe but slow path, or partner with existing manufacturers and integrate our technology into them. The second option saves hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and shortens time to market, but it creates dependence on a partner whose facilities are not always adapted to our requirements.”

According to Wolf, “while preparing to build the plant in Denmark, we managed to create partnerships with two existing giant factories. We are producing there in high volumes, and it seems we have cracked the industry’s bottleneck.”

Dependence on outside dairies created another challenge, a long wait to adapt the milk proteins to the dairies’ desired taste. Wolf decided not to wait. He set up an internal lab within Remilk that handles development work for the partnership. “We took the mission on ourselves. Our team takes the raw material and turns it into a tasty product ready for marketing, unlike our competitors, who focus only on the raw material.”

He details the complexity. “Milk is a complex product with aspects of taste, texture and functionality. It cannot break down in coffee, it must allow a barista to create art on it, and it must froth and bake successfully. Every layer like that is tested in our lab.”

During the strategic changes the company underwent, several directors left, including the former chairman of the company, a senior Strauss executive, Nestlé’s former head of marketing, a former PepsiCo executive and Danone Europe’s president. Wolf was not deterred by reports of their departure: “They did not represent the shareholders but functioned as advisers. With the board’s support, we made a decision that the added value we received did not justify the cost.”

From Ness Ziona to the Emirates For Wolf, the launch of the drink in Israel is a significant success, but it is only the opening shot. The company is now in advanced talks with two major U.S. food companies, active in enzymes and flavors, with the aim of embedding Remilk’s technology within them.

“In the United States there is a chronic shortage of milk and milk proteins, and this is an industry that relies on billions of dollars in subsidies,” Wolf explains. “Our solution arrives at the perfect time, we offer an identical raw material, with technology that is not dependent on the constraints of traditional agriculture.”

Remilk, which has raised about $150 million since its founding, recorded another achievement when it became the first Israeli company to raise capital from the United Arab Emirates after October 7. According to PitchBook, in 2024 the company raised $20 million from Tau Capital, which is associated with an Emirati wealth fund, at a market value of half a billion dollars.

“Because of the extreme climate in the Emirates, about 90% of the country’s dairy products are imported,” Wolf notes. “The Emirates face constant supply challenges in basic consumer goods. Remilk allows them to build a local and independent dairy industry, because the fermentation process is not affected by outside temperature, so they are no longer dependent on external factors.”

Prepared with assistance by: Nevo Shapir