Infinite Roots (IR) (formerly Mushlabs) is a German biotech company that builds grooves in mycelium, a fungi-derived material that has been hailed as something of an answer to everything from food to building materials. Continuing. In a significant move for IR and the nascent Mycelium startup sector, IR has now closed a $58 million Series B funding round, making it one of the largest investments in technology in Europe to date. It has become.
The round was led by Dr. Hans Riegel Holding (HRH), best known as one of the two holding companies for confectionery group Haribo (who hasn't tried Haribo? ?!). The round was also supported by the European Investment Council Fund, which makes direct equity investments in European startups.
REWE Group (a German tourism conglomerate) and Hong Kong's Betagro Ventures.
Existing investors including Clay Capital, FoodLabs, Redalpine, Simon Capital and Happiness Capital also participated. Prior to this round, IR had raised $10 million in Series A.
The company said it plans to use the new round to switch to commercial growth, expand production capacity and invest in launch activities.
Dr. Mazen Rizk, founder and CEO of Infinite Roots, said the company is “uniquely positioned to define a new era of mushroom mycelium-based products.”
Mycelium is essentially the “root” of the mushroom and is the non-reproductive part of the fungus. Fungi use mycelium to secrete enzymes to break down the food around them and absorb nutrients. This means that it can ultimately be processed into a variety of products, from textiles to building materials.
Now, not everything will be smooth sailing. IR has a small number of well-funded competitors.
Meaty in the US has raised $274.5 million to date. Nature's Fynd has raised $509.6 million. Myco Technology raised $207.6 million. A healthy $121.7 million was raised in the UK. And then there's Quorn, made by Marlowe Foods, the godfather of fermentation and the almost famous company working on mushroom and mycelium products.
And just this month, biomaterials company Sqim (formerly Mogu SRL) closed a $12 million funding round from CDP Venture Capital and others for its industrial mycelium-based technology.
Sqim is using fermentation to target two areas: wall, floor and acoustic treatment products, and animal-free alternatives for the luxury fashion and automotive industries.
That said, Rizk said the Series B round was generated because of the technology scale-up the company is able to achieve.
“We are taking a two-pronged approach,” he said. “One is that we follow an asset-light approach to our facilities, working with existing facilities to produce raw materials. That way we don't have to invest heavily in capital equipment. Another thing is that we are working with one of Germany's leading breweries to renovate part of the brewery and set up our own production space.This will take advantage of the brewery's capabilities and It means using the waste from the brewery as a production base.”
This has a lot of investors excited, and they have a few more ideas, he said. We don't just want to create meat substitutes. I would like to create products based on the concept of “delicious and healthy.”
Either way, it is rapidly becoming clear that access to industrial-scale facilities will increasingly be the way forward for these mycelium companies.
Meaty Foods, for example, moved into full-scale production of its mycelium-based whole food protein last year, funding a $150 million Series C round and a $22 million expansion round in Colorado. “Mega Lunch'' was launched. The facility aims to produce more than 45 million pounds of product.
It is therefore important for Infinite Roots to sign an agreement with an industrial partner for the next stage.