The Future is Fungi Award Winners: Three Startups Leading Mycelium Innovation Across Continents

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• Michroma, Mycolever, and HIRO Technologies won the 2025 Future is Fungi Award from 187 applicants across 59 countries, securing €250,000 investment and access to expert networks including L’Oréal, Novonesis, and BASF

• Applications increased 40% since 2023, with Europe leading at 37% of submissions, followed by North America at 25%o: the latter showing the largest regional growth

• Winning companies represent diverse applications: fungal pigments for food colouring, AI-driven biochemical discovery, and plastic-degrading fungi targeting absorbent products

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The fungal biotechnology sector’s momentum continues accelerating, evidenced by the second edition of The Future is Fungi Award attracting 187 groundbreaking startups from 59 countries which is a 40% increase from the inaugural 2023 competition. The award, which provides €250,000 in investment alongside strategic partnerships with corporations and research institutions, selected three winners representing the breadth of mycelium applications: MiChroma, Mycolever, and HIRO Technologies.

Geographic Distribution and Sectoral Diversity

Europe emerged as the leading innovation frontier with 37% of applications, followed by North America at 25%, Africa and Asia each at 14%, Latin America at 7%, and Oceania at 3%. North America demonstrated the most significant growth trajectory, suggesting increasing entrepreneurial activity in fungal biotechnology across the continent.

Applicant sectors spanned materials, green chemicals, food, agriculture, platform technologies, mycoremediation, carbon capture, forestry, energy storage, and electronics. The competition also accommodated moonshot proposals defying traditional categorisation. Mycelium materials dominated the innovation landscape, confirming the technology’s emergence as a cross-sector solution.

2025 Future is Fungi Awards Winners

MiChroma: Fungal Pigments for Food Applications

Argentine startup Michroma develops food colourants through fungal fermentation, having recently achieved industrial scale-up through partnership with CJ, which operates the world’s largest fermentation capacity. The company completed a $6.4 million seed round in 2022 and is preparing a Series A or pre-Series A fundraising round.

Michroma’s intellectual property centres on proprietary recipes, formulations, and engineered fungal strains producing a complete colour spectrum—red, orange, yellow, blue, magenta, and green: from a single strain, plus white from an alternative strain targeting titanium dioxide replacement. Different colours result from downstream processing adjustments, substrate variations, or synthetic biology modifications that edit fungal genes.

The company currently conducts toxicology studies preparing for colour additive petition submissions required for commercial sales. While regulatory constraints prevent immediate market entry, MiChroma operates an outsourced production model: developing recipes, proving scalability, managing regulatory processes, then licensing production to partners like CJ for global manufacturing.

Regulatory approval focuses on final product molecular composition rather than production methods, meaning genetically modified organisms used during fermentation do not automatically classify the product as GMO if edited DNA remains absent from the final ingredient.

Mycolever: AI-Driven Biochemical Discovery

German startup Mycolever employs artificial intelligence to mine fungal biodiversity for novel biochemicals applicable across personal care, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors. The platform addresses fossil-based chemical dependency, particularly targeting surfactant production responsible for over 52 million tonnes of annual CO₂ emissions.

Based in Rheinbach, Germany, Mycolever represents the intersection of computational biology and fungal metabolism, seeking to accelerate discovery of sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived chemicals. The company’s approach leverages computational screening of fungal metabolic pathways to identify candidates for development into functional bioproducts.

HIRO Technologies: Plastic Degradation

HIRO Technologies pursues perhaps the most ambitious application: developing fungi capable of degrading plastic within absorbent products, initially targeting disposable nappies. The company positions itself as creating shelf-stable fungal biotechnology designed to break down plastics, though current messaging carefully distinguishes between laboratory degradation under optimal conditions and real-world biodegradation performance.

HIRO’s strategic approach involves three components: optimising fungi through natural selection, creating complementary microbial ecosystems to complete degradation cycles, and innovating product materials themselves for improved fungal consumption. The company has pivoted from focusing on landfill conditions toward composting and aerobic environments, acknowledging that full breakdown requires bacterial partnerships completing the degradation initiated by fungi.

The business model resembles software-as-a-service rather than traditional materials manufacturing, requiring minimal fungal quantities for propagation across production volumes. HIRO plans open-sourcing intellectual property for individual use whilst reserving commercial licensing rights, potentially establishing an Institute for Regenerative Innovation to house patents.

Expert Network and Strategic Support

Beyond financial investment, award winners access expert networks including L’Oréal, Novonesis (formerly Novozymes) or BASF. Such partnerships provide technical expertise, regulatory guidance, and potential commercial pathways: resources particularly valuable for early-stage biotechnology companies navigating complex approval processes and scaling challenges.

The Future is Fungi Award’s vision centres on a regenerative future powered by fungi, where fungal research guides humanity’s transition toward healing ecosystems, reimagining industries, and inspiring solutions sustaining life across generations. Whether this vision materialises depends substantially on whether companies like the 2025 winners can translate promising laboratory results into commercially viable, environmentally beneficial products at scale.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​