June 10, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Swedish foodtech startup Mycorena announced it has raised €1.2 million (US$1.37 million) to scale up production and advance the commercialization of its novel fungi-based alternative protein, Promyc. 

Founded in 2017 and based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Mycorena uses a proprietary fungi-based process to make next-generation, vegan protein with a significantly lower environmental impact compared to animal or plant-based proteins.

Launched in early 2020, Promyc has a nutritional profile of 60 percent protein and 12 percent fiber, and is being positioned by the company as a more sustainable alternative to both meat and traditional plant-based proteins such as soy or pea.

Mycorena envision its sustainability, low environmental impact, nutritional content, and meaty texture making it attractive as a  key protein ingredient choice for food producers tied into the alternative protein category that are looking for a new alternative with superior taste and texture that is locally produced and capable of rapidly scaling up. 

It also has attracted a range of investors to participate in this round including FBG Invest – an industrial investor network based in Southern Sweden;  Bertebos Foundation – the owner of Swedish food companies Berte Qvarn, SIA Glass; Falkenbergs Sparbanks Foundation; investors from GlassWall Syndicate; and returning existing investors Bånt AB, Expand Research B.V., and Kate United AB. Additional funding for the company has been committed by EIT Climate-KIC Nordics.

“People are becoming more aware of the importance of having a healthy and sustainable food system, especially at these times when the world is facing a crisis,” said Ramkumar Nair, founder and CEO, Mycorena.

“This awareness is reflecting in the huge boom of the plant-based and non-meat alternative protein segment around the globe. We are really glad to be part of that movement and strongly believe that Promyc is capable of making a disruption within the vegan protein segment.”

This funding will support Mycorena to establish its first small-scale industrial production facility in Falkenberg – a region that is home to a growing number of large-scale food manufacturers in Sweden.

“Mycorena is one of the most promising foodtech start-ups in Sweden,” said Jan Melkersson, head of Business Development Unit at Falkenberg Municipality.

“We are really glad to have Mycorena’s production facility in Falkenberg and it’s our first step towards attracting more start-ups within the foodtech space and transforming the region to be the Silicon Valley of Foodtech in the Nordics.”

 Fungi Focus

In recent years food tech innovators have been discovering the many ways in which fungi can be processed to create and deploy ingredients or applications with the potential to greatly disrupt traditional food categories.

On June 10, U.S.-based MycoTechnology announced it had raised $39 million in Series D funding co-led by Greenleaf Foods, SPC, S2G Ventures, and Evolution Partners, bringing total funding to-date to $120 million. 

MycoTechnology has pioneered the development of a variety of innovative organic food processing platforms using mushroom roots (mycelium). Although the full range of possibilities for their technology is not yet known, the company has used their platform to solve some of the toughest challenges faced by the food and beverage industries.

The company’s flagship product ClearTaste® is the world’s first organic bitter blocker, which helps companies reduce the sugar content of their products by blocking bitterness. Additional testing has revealed that ClearTaste® is also able to block the metallic aftertaste associated with potassium chloride, a common salt replacer.

Their second product, PureTaste®, is a sustainable, functional, and nutritional plant-based protein.

Then there’s Canadian biotech startup Chinova Bioworks that raised a $2 million Seed round in August 2018 led by DSM Venturing BV and Rhapsody Venture Partners to support the development of its natural food preservative derived from a mushroom extract which protects foods from bacteria, yeast, and mold with no organoleptic impact.

In Sweden, Mycorena’s is planning to continue to scale up production capacity with the addition of its new facility, and to pursue new potential applications for Promyc while also expanding their customer base.

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.