Smearcase raises investment to expand cottage cheese ice cream products nationwide

Smearcase has landed its first institutional investor in Listen Ventures and is using the money to push FroCo, its ice cream-like cottage cheese product, into more than 1,000 retail doors by the second quarter of 2026. The move puts a sharper point on a growing shift in packaged food: protein is increasingly winning when it arrives in a format that feels like a treat.

Founded in 2023 by Joe Rotondo, Gianna Rotondo and Drew DiSpirito, Smearcase built FroCo around cottage cheese, milk, cane sugar, liquid milk protein, pectin and collagen. Joe Rotondo has said the concept started when he used cottage cheese to satisfy a sweet tooth while training for a marathon, a fitting origin story for a brand that is trying to make high-protein eating feel less like sports nutrition and more like dessert. The company’s pitch is simple and timely, because consumers still want function, but they are also rewarding products that deliver indulgence without abandoning macros.

Smearcase has already assembled a retail path that suggests broader traction than a one-off social-media novelty. The brand launched nationwide at Sprouts Farmers Market, expanded in Whole Foods Market in the Northeast, and added Fresh Thyme in April and Fresh Market in May. It also won the Albertsons Innovation Launchpad at Expo West, earned recognition as a Dairy Foods 2025 Dairy Product of the Year finalist, and took home the 2024 Real California Milk Excelerator grand prize, which came with $100,000 in marketing support. Those milestones gave the company both visibility and resources as it scaled production and distribution.

That combination makes Smearcase a useful test case for the next phase of stealth-health protein. Cottage cheese is no longer being treated only as a plain spoonable dairy item; it is being repositioned as a flexible protein base that can support craveable, dessert-style products. If FroCo keeps building through natural and premium retail, it could point to a durable category where consumers do not have to choose between taste and nutrition. If not, it may become another short-lived burst of online enthusiasm. For now, the expansion suggests the market is still hungry for protein that feels fun first.