August 26, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media 

Berlin-based Mushlabs announced it has closed on a $10 million Series A co-led by Singapore’s VisVires New Protein and Switzerland’s Redalpine. Happiness Capital, an existing investor and affiliate of Lee Kum Kee food brand, also participated in the round along with Joyance Partners.

This funding follows upon capital totaling $2.2 million previously raised by the company from investors that included Bitburger Ventures and Atlantic Food Labs. 

Founded in 2018 by CEO Mazen Rizk, Mushlabs is a technology-driven company using a fermentation process to produce alternative foods and meat from edible mushroom mycelia, or the “roots” of mushrooms. 

This fermentation platform leverages the potential of fungi – an often-overlooked food source – to disrupt the existing food industry and create meaningful, lasting change through the production of tastier, healthier, and more sustainable foods.

Fungi are one of the most efficient decomposers in the world, according to Mushlabs, that explains how fungi’s mycelial network in forest soils act as a large-scale digestive system, up-cycling nutrients.

Mushlabs’ platform uses the same mycelial cells to up-cycle nutrients in the food industry by cultivating them in a controlled environment to serve as “seeds” for the biomass that is eventually produced. 

These mycelia are fed co-products from the agro and food industries such as coffee grounds or rice husks in large-scale bioreactors where they multiply into a biomass dense in protein and fiber, and with a mouthfeel and flavor making it ideal as a meat alternative. This biomass is the raw beginning for all of the company’s sustainable food products.

Not only does this business represent a sustainable, circular process that uses a fraction of the water and land required by traditional production, but it also offers a method of producing protein – a key benefit for regions in the midst of food shortages or other crises affecting the ability to grow and produce food.

The untapped potential for fungi to transform how food is produced and preserved has been increasingly gaining the attention of entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors in recent years.

Colorado-based MycoTechnology raised $39 million through a Series D in June of this year, bringing total funding for the company to $120 million in support of its innovative mycelium-based functional ingredient platform. 

Co-led by Greenleaf Foods, SPC, S2G Ventures, and Evolution Partners, this round also included Rich Products Ventures, Tyson Ventures, Continental Grain, Middleland Capital, Bunge Ventures, Seventure Partners, Cibus Investments Limited, and Kellogg’s investment unit eighteen94.

Also in Colorado, Meati Foods announced in June of this year the launch of its Meati Steak, a minimally processed steak made from mycelium that grills and sears like animal-based steaks.

And Canada’s Chinova Bioworks raised $2 million in Seed capital in 2018 through a round co-led by DSM Venturing BV and Rhapsody Venture Partners, and including AgFunder and Natural Products Canada, to fund its development of a natural food preservative derived from a mushroom extract called chitosan, which protects foods from bacteria, yeast, and mold with no organoleptic impact.

– 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.