Sustainable fungal protein powder in development

Finnish biotech startup eniferBio has successfully raised €11m in series a round funding, led by Aqua-Spark, to scale up the production of its PEKILO mycoprotein powder and seek Novel Food approval from the European Union and other markets.

PEKILO is a fungus that can produce a dried powder rich in protein when put through a special fermentation process. The powder has a variety of usage cases, such as pet food and aquafeed. This process was originally developed by forestry industry scientists in the 1960s in Finland to produce cost-efficient animal feed protein from side streams of the pulp and paper industry.

Using an enhanced version of the technology and fermentation process, eniferBio can upcycle by-products from agri-food and forest industry processes into its PEKILO mycoprotein, which has a high concentration of vitamin B and consists of up to 70% protein, 20–30% fibre and about 10% fats and minerals. Its production process is efficient, uses very little water, doesn’t require large land areas and does not cause eutrophication.

According to Statista, humans consumed 160 million metric tons of farmed and wild fish in 2021. Aquaculture production has overtaken the wild fish catch and is the most rapidly expanding food production sector, requiring huge amounts of new high-quality protein feeds. A common feed ingredient is soy, with Brazilian soybean production estimated to have reached 152 million tonnes in 2021/2022. PEKILO mycoprotein has a lower carbon footprint than soybean, offering a more sustainable alternative to markets heavily reliant on imported soybeans.

“Greening aquaculture feed by eliminating our reliance on wild ingredients and reducing our footprint is one of our biggest priorities in getting to a more sustainable aquaculture industry. eniferBio’s alternative feed ingredient serves as a replacement for soy in aquafeed. It significantly reduces land and water usage. Furthermore, early trials suggest that it has the potential to improve growth performance and immune response in fish,” said Lissy Smit, CEO of Aqua-Spark.

eniferBio has ongoing partnerships with global companies in the food industries, such as Skretting, the global aquafeed division of Nutreco, Purina and Valio.

“New, plant-based sources of protein are gaining interest amongst consumers and demand is growing worldwide. In addition to traditional food production, we also need new ways of producing food that promote the circular economy. eniferBio is a cutting-edge research company that has developed new ways of utilising the food industry’s side streams in the production of protein. We want to strengthen our cooperation and be involved in developing new ways of producing food to meet the growing global demand for food,” said Tuomas Salusjärvi, Executive Vice President, Growth Businesses and R&D at Valio.

Almost three years after the company spun out from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, eniferBio is ready to scale up its operations by building industrial production plants and applying for permission to spread mycoprotein usage into new products and markets.