Raffael Wohlgesinger from Formo is HSG Founder of the Year 2022

25 March 2022. Raffael Wohlgensinger founded the food startup "Formo" together with Dr. Britta Winterberg in 2019. Since the cheese lover was not satisfied with previously available cheese substitutes based on soy or nuts, he began to "recreate" the product in the lab. With "Formo," he wanted to produce real dairy products without milk from cows, sheep and goats.

Wohlgensinger's startup Formo, which was initially called Legendairy Foods, does not produce cheese on the usual animal or plant basis, but builds its products with the help of microorganisms. Now, Formo wants to expand its product range, which currently includes soft cheeses such as mozzarella and ricotta, to include aged cheeses such as cheddar and gruyere, as well as expand its fermentation technology. To this end, the Berlin-based startup Formo received $50 million last year, the largest Series A financing for a foodtech in Europe to date.

HSG Connection

Raffael Wohlgensinger was co-founder and vice president of the "VeganClub@HSG" during his studies at the University of St.Gallen. Together with Nucleus Capital, he has been supporting new startups in the fields of Synthetic Biology, Climate and Food Tech since 2021.

Previous prize winners of the HSG Founders of the Year Award include:

• Dorina Bührle von Piavita (2021)
• Julian Teicke von Wefox (2020)
• Kilian Wagner, founder of VIU (Eyewear) (2019)
• Valentin Stalf, founder of the smartphone bank N26 (2018)
• Lea von Bidder, inventor of the “Ava” fertility bracelet (2017)
• “on” running shoe inventor, Caspar Coppetti (2016)
• Laura Behrens Wu (2015), founder of the shipping software company “Shippo”
• Alexander Graubner-Müller (2014), founder of the “Kreditech” mini-loans platform
• “Soma Analytics” founder, Johann Huber (2013) with his anti-stress app
• “DeinDeal.ch” founder Adrian Locher (2012)
• Dr. Alexander Ilic (2011), founder of Dacuda, which developed a scanner mouse

The jury for the HSG Founder of the year 2022 included:

• Prof. Dietmar Grichnik, Professor für Entrepreneurship an der HSG
• Maria-Luisa Fuchs, Projektmanagerin Startup@HSG
• Diego Probst, Leiter Startup@HSG