Scaling up mycoprotein: Enough gets financial backing for alternative protein ingredient boost

21 Aug 2023 --- Mycoprotein producer Enough has raised €40 million (US$43.5 million) in growth funding co-led by World Fund and CPT Capital to scale up its mycoprotein ingredient production. The food technology company’s Abunda mycoprotein can be used as an alternative protein ingredient for various products, including plant-based chicken breast, mince and dairy.

According to Enough, the ingredient is up to 15 times more efficient than other protein sources because of the company’s proprietary technology and zero-waste production, which uses up to 93% less water, 97% less feed and causes 97% fewer CO2 emissions than protein from beef.

Enough has raised growth funding from climate tech VC World Fund and food technology investor CPT Capital to extend the capacity of the company’s first production site in the Netherlands to serve growing customer demand for sustainable protein.

Plukon Food Group is developing non-animal chicken and meat product.Scalable technology
Abunda mycoprotein ferments fungi using renewable feedstocks to produce alternative ingredient proteins at scale. It will be used in alternative meat and dairy products sold in leading supermarkets and fast-food brands worldwide through various partnerships, such as with Marks & Spencer and Unilever.

Securing a sustainable and healthy diet for the world’s growing population and producing vast quantities of sustainable protein is an urgent priority for the F&B industry.

The global meat industry accounts for nearly 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions while also being one of the largest sources of methane and causes of deforestation. At the same time, interest and demand in plant-based food have increased significantly in recent years, with forecasts that the alternative protein market will reach US$290 billion by 2035, with at least 10% of meat, eggs, dairy and seafood eaten around the globe coming from alternative sources. 

However, current solutions can only produce low-scale quantities, which are more expensive and inaccessible to the mass market. 

Enough has developed a technology that enables large-scale sustainable protein production by creating a core protein ingredient to power alternative meat products worldwide. Its signature mycoprotein is created by feeding fungi with sugars from sustainably sourced grain which is then fermented in a similar production to beer or wine. 

This creates Abunda - a food high in protein and fiber, contains all nine essential amino acids and crucially, boasts a neutral flavor and meat-like texture that can be used to create plant-based meat, fish and dairy products. 

 Abunda is high in protein and fiber, contains all nine essential amino acids and boasts a neutral flavor and meat-like texture.Plant-based partnerships
European poultry processor Plukon Food Group, which is developing non-animal chicken and meat products comparable to its traditional product range, is very enthusiastic about getting started with mycoprotein raw material. 

Enough’s Netherlands factory is co-located alongside a Cargill facility which ensures the most efficient feed source and supports the zero-waste strategy of Enough’s products. Initially, the factory will produce 10,000 metric tons of Abunda per year, with plans to scale up to more than 60,000 tons annually.

“Enough has made great strides in the past few years to launch our new factory in the Netherlands and scale up to work with customers across the UK and Europe. With this new funding, we will accelerate that growth,” says Jim Laird, founder and CEO of Enough.

“The alternative protein market is a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and the ethical and environmental reasons to embrace non-animal protein sources are more pressing than ever.” 

Craig Douglas, founding partner at World Fund, adds: “Enough is tackling crucial bottlenecks in the creation of sustainable protein while using fewer resources and maintaining a zero-waste process, which is enabling Enough to have a lower carbon footprint compared to other plant-based protein sources while producing at scale and providing supply security to a growing market.”

Edited by Gaynor Selby