Mycorena, a Scandinavian mycoprotein pioneer company, has announced the completion of a Pre-Series A funding round of €7.5 million (SEK77 million). The new investment will support Mycorena's acceleration and scaling up of its production.
The EIC funded startup's total amount of external funding surpassed €10 million (SEK100 million) with this investment round. The Pre-Series A was led by VEOS Group, a leading Belgian supplier of proteins and functional ingredients, with other new and existing investors, including FBG Invest and Bånt AB, two of the largest shareholders of Mycorena.
In a short interview to the EIC Community, Paulo Teixeira, Chief Innovation Officer of Mycorena, explained how this funding round will support the company's growth and industrialization of processes. "We are scaling up processes in our pilot facility and working on the construction of our demo/commercial-scale facility here in Sweden", he mentioned. “The following steps will include more partnerships with food companies and potential customers, develop our technology to create and scale unique products, and push products into the market as real field trials".
The construction of a new production site is one of the main projects in hands, thanks to this funding round. Mycorena aims to expand its business and, to do so, is planning to implement a facility for large-scale manufacturing of mycoprotein. The plant should be operating in 2022.
Paulo mentioned that this type of investment is important for ambitious startups looking to establish their own industrial processes: "This is what is enabling us. Without this investment, we wouldn't be able to grow and develop at the speed that we need. The competition is building up in the mycoprotein sector, and without investments, you cannot keep up with the speed of the market." he concluded.
Mycorena is currently one of the leading manufacturers of mycoprotein and one of the fast-growing food-tech startups in Sweden. Their flagship mycoprotein ingredient, Promyc, is already being tested as a protein ingredient in several vegan products sold in Scandinavia.
Mycorena received a grant from the European Innovation Council to develop a circular fungi-based high-protein feed solution for aquaculture.
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