It’s a tough moment for alternative proteins, including fungi-derived mycoprotein.
The market tells the story: category leader Quorn is seeing sales decline, while younger players such as Sweden’s Mycorena have stumbled – filing for bankruptcy before being acquired by Naplasol.
It’s against this backdrop that Dutch start-up The Protein Brewery plans to not just survive, but thrive.
“It’s a challenging landscape for alternative proteins in general,” says newly appointed CEO Thijs Bosch, speaking just three months into the role.
The key to success? It’s about differentiating between the ingredients that will truly make a difference, and those that won’t, he explains. If you’re not in the former category, “you’ll have a really, really challenging time”.
What sets The Protein Brewery’s mycoprotein ingredient apart?
Bosch is convinced The Protein Brewery’s mycoprotein ingredient, Fermotein, will make a substantial difference across the board, from taste to sustainability, nutrition and affordability.
Fermotein is made from the Rhizomucor pusillus strain of mycoprotein – different from that used by the likes of Quorn and Mycorena, which both use Fusarium venenatum. The obvious challenge in using Rhizomucor pusillus instead of Fusarium venenatum, is that it’s a novel food – meaning it requires pre-market approval.
But the benefits outweigh any potential regulation hurdles, Bosch suggests. “It’s an extremophilic fungus, meaning it can grow in very low pH environments and handle relatively high temperatures – making the capital needed to build the factory relatively limited.”
Ultimately, that means The Protein Brewery can scale faster. Once it exits the factory, there are added benefits, we’re told. Since Fermotein is a mycoprotein powder rather than a wet mycoprotein biomass, it makes for a more versatile ingredient.
How Fermotein aligns with new health trends like GLP-1
Just like taste, affordability and sustainability (Fermotein is even more climate friendly than plant protein in terms of CO2 emissions, land and water use), nutrition will play a major role in The Protein Brewery’s marketing strategy.
And rightly so, says Bosch, who sees Fermotein aligning with health trends like high-protein and GLP-1 drugs. Fermotein is not just a protein, but contains fibre, too.
“It’s about 50% protein, 35% fibre, and is very rich in minerals, which means it’s a very complete nutritional source.”
GLP-1 is “exactly” the type of trend that aligns with a food ingredient like mycoprotein, he says, “because it plays a role in satiety as well”.
The Protein Brewery’s business strategy
Just this month, The Protein Brewery closed its €30m Series B funding round. Fittingly Novo Holdings, which owns Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk, is among the investors.
Others include Unovis Asset Management, Madeli, Invest-NL and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM).
With it, the start-up is doubling down on its key markets for commercialisation: the US and Singapore, where Fermotein has received regulatory approvals.
But Europe is another market very much on the Dutch company’s radar. “We’re very close to regulatory approval in Europe as well,” Bosch reveals.
Now with more funding in place, Bosch will be using it to invest in its production facility, and in expanding its commercial team – a sign that The Protein Brewery’s mycoprotein is ready to get out of the lab and into more products.
“We want to be in front of customers more and to develop Fermotein for the right applications.”
