Nobell Foods Hires Former Impossible Foods VP, Sergey Solomatin

Sergey Solomatin is Nobell Foods' new leader of food science and product development — Sergey Solomatin. Image courtesy of Nobell Foods

Today, Nobell Foods, which uses plant-grown proteins to create animal-free cheese, announced the hire of Sergey Solomatin as the company’s new vice president of food science and product development. Solomatin joins the company after more than 10 years at Impossible Foods, where he helped to develop, scale and commercialize its cutting-edge food technology.

With a decade of experience at food companies working in nucleic acid biochemistry, biophysics, polymer chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences, the company says Solomatin brings an industry-leading understanding of the connection between rigorous biochemical research and groundbreaking, delicious, scalable food products.

“At Nobell Foods, we harness the power of plants to create animal-free cheese with accessibility and craveability at the forefront,” says Nobell Foods CEO and founder Magi Richani. “As we pioneer a new category in food with plant-grown proteins, the innovative work that Sergey and his team are doing will enable us to challenge the perceptions of what animal-free cheese tastes, melts and stretches like.”

During his time at Impossible Foods, Solomatin created the materials and texture research group, which included more than 30 industry-leading scientists. Under Solomatin's leadership, this group made key contributions to developing and launching the flagship Impossible Ground Beef products, as well as laying the foundation for future products.

“As a young company that’s building an entirely new category, Nobell Foods has a huge opportunity to drive real change and create a positive impact on the planet and people,” Solomatin says. “Nobell Foods is already leading the future of food with their work around Casein and I’m beyond honored to join their innovative team.”

Solomatin’s first day at Nobell Foods was January 13 and his arrival comes during a period of strategic growth for the company. To date, Nobell Foods says it has raised $102 million, with notable support from Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Robert Downey Jr. 's FootPrint Coalition Ventures.