Funding success: MycoTechnology raises US$30m in Series C financing round

01 Feb 2019 --- Food-tech company MycoTechnology has raised US$30 million in new investments after closing a Series C funding round co-led by S2G Ventures Fund II, L.P., Middleland MT Holdings, LLC, ADM Capital's Cibus Fund and TML-Invest S.a r.l. Further participation in the round came from Tysons Ventures, Bunge Ventures Limited, Continental Grain Company, Eighteen94 Capital, LLC (Kellogg's) and DNS-Hiitake LLC. The investments will take the company’s total funding to over US$80 million and are expected to fuel expansion and accelerate R&D. According to the company, this funding round will open up an opportunity to explore consumer demands and bring novel ingredients to the market.

MycoTechnology has developed a novel organic food processing platform that transforms agricultural material into functional ingredients. 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. Their second product, PureTaste, seeks to solve the question of how we will feed an exponentially growing population with a sustainable, functional and nutritional plant-based protein made from mushrooms.

MycoTechnology has over 50 different mushroom strains that it uses in various projects. ClearTaste, uses Cordyceps, while PureTaste, uses Shiitake. In October 2018, FoodIngredientsFirst published a report featuring MycoTechnology and opportunities for mushroom ingredients. 

The investment coming from large industry players “reveals the significant impact MycoTechnology is making on the rapidly changing food ingredient space. MycoTechnology is at the forefront of innovation with their cutting-edge mushroom fermentation platform, and big names are recognizing the potential and enthusiastically getting on board,” notes Gary Pilnick, Kellogg’s Vice Chairman. 

“MycoTechnology's organic technology addresses growing consumer demand for products focused on health and sustainability, and Kellogg's is excited to continue to partner with the company in a number of ways,” Pilnick says. 

S2G Ventures' Sanjeev Krishnan also comments: “MycoTechnology has proven itself to be a platform and a products company. Investors in this round represent over US$100 billion in revenues and market caps. MycoTechnology's platform is proven to solve many of the food industry problems as it tries to feed the changing consumer preferences.” 

“Representing one of the largest privately held dairy companies in Europe, we are excited to become an investor in MycoTechnology and its two key products, ClearTaste and PureTaste. Both the reduction of added sugar in FCMG as well as alternative dairy proteins are themes that we at Mueller are monitoring quite closely. An investment into a technology that addresses both topics in an innovative and seminal matter made sense for us on various levels,” notes Martin Goeggelmann, Head of the family office of Mr. Müller, owner of the dairy brand Müller.

“MycoTechnology's fungi fermentation platform solves a number of the biggest challenges in the food industry, including producing high value, complete protein alternative to animal-based products, increased sustainability, and the ability to drastically reduce sugar content in foods,” says Alastair Cooper, Senior Investment Director at ADM Capital Cibus Fund. 

“MycoTechnology is driving the growth of a new and disruptive product range, and we are thrilled to co-lead this investment round and fund the next stages of development,” he adds.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst Alan Hahn, CEO and Co-Founder at MycoTechnology explains: “The big food players are looking for sustainable and healthy food ingredients that they can use to make novel solutions to challenging problems like reducing salt and sugar in foods and how to add plant-based protein without having to mask the off-notes with more sugar.” 

“The investment is to pay for our new 86,000 square ft. facility that produces 4,000 metric tons of PureTaste Protein annually, our new state-of-the-art labs, our customer experience center, and our corporate HQ. We will be expanding our product line and adding to our headcount as well,” he says. 

“We have a huge pipeline of innovation from fungi and we see a virtually unlimited opportunity to create novel new ingredients that are highly functional and solve challenging issues in the food space while tasting great,” he concludes.