Dutch startup The Protein Brewery has a raised a €30 million ($35.6 million) Series B round to scale its fungi-based food ingredients platform ahead of a commercial launch in the US and Singapore.
The round, which comes hot on the heels of a $58 million raise by French alt meat firm Nxtfood (ACCRO), was backed by existing investors Novo Holdings, Unovis Asset Management, and Madeli; and new investors Invest-NL and the Brabant Development Agency.
The capital will be used to commercialize its mycoprotein (brand name: Fermotein) in the US and Singapore, expand production at its demo-scale facility in Mijkenbroek in the Netherlands; and invest in sales and application work.
The firm is also preparing for market launch in the EU and UK pending regulatory approvals.
‘We can grow our mycoprotein largely under non-sterile conditions’
Quorn has been in a field of one for many years when it comes to growing fungi in fermentation tanks.
However, a flurry of startups has recently emerged developing whole biomass products from various microbes, from Nature’s Fynd and Superbrewed Foods to Infinite Roots, Enifer, ENOUGH Foods, The Better Meat Co, MyForest Foods, MOA Foodtech, and Meati Foods.
Several other players such as Unibio and Calysta are also growing protein-rich ingredients with microbes using gas fermentation (rather than using sugars as feedstocks) with an initial focus on animal feed and petfood.
While most mycoprotein players in this space are focused on alt meat, however, Fermotein is a protein-rich powder that can be used in a wide range of applications, The Protein Brewery CEO Thijs Bosch told AgFunderNews.
“We made a conscious choice to produce a powder instead of a wet mycoprotein. We can now easily export Fermotein to markets like the USA and Singapore, and apply our ingredient in many applications. It is very neutral tasting, and comprises about 50% complete protein, 35% healthy fibers and is full of vitamins and minerals.”
He added: “It is mainly used as a nutritional ingredient, with a lot of interest from better for you bakery and snacking brands, which aim to reduce sugar and fat and include more protein and fiber. Moreover we see strong interest from active nutrition customers, both for functional bars, ready-to-mix powders and functional supplement brands.
“We are working with a number of brands focusing on healthy aging as they are interested in some of the bioactive nutrients in Fermotein. It also has a very low footprint, which will become more important for several brands going forward.”
The Protein Brewery has a demo-scale plant up and running in Mijkenbroek, with a production capacity of 600 metric tons per year, “which we can expand to 2,500 tons by adding additional fermentation capacity at the same site,” said Bosch.
“We’re using Rhizomucor pusillus, a different strain vs. other mycoprotein companies, and we can grow our mycoprotein largely under non-sterile conditions. This means our process is less capital intensive.”
Regulation and labeling
Fermotein has self-GRAS status in the US but The Protein Brewery has also filed a dossier with the FDA and expects to receive a “no questions letter” in 2026, said Bosch.
The firm—which was founded in 2019 by Wim de Laat—submitted a novel food application to the European Food Safety Authority in 2021 and is now at the “final stages” of the approval process, said Bosch.
“We are also in the FSA [Food Standards Agency] process for the UK. In Singapore we are already approved by the SFA [Singapore Food Agency] and are working with multiple prospects there.”
Labeling is to be determined, he said. “This will be a topic to discuss with our customers in line with other mycoprotein ingredients. ‘Mycoprotein’ is used in labels, so is ‘fermented fungi ingredient’ or ‘mycelium-based protein.’”
