Green Island startup Ecovative Design LLC, the parent company of MyForest Foods, has raised another $28 million just over a year after its last $30 million raise.
In total, the company has raised over $145 million across its funding rounds since its founding in 2007.
Ecovative Design has spent years developing strains of mycelium — the root-like structure of mushrooms — known as AirMycelium that can be used for a range of products.
A strain that closely resembles meat is used to make MyForest Foods' MyBacon product.
Eben Bayer, CEO of Ecovative, said about two-thirds of the funding came from existing investors and the remainder was from new sources. The funding was a growth equity round.
"The kind of investment is again the folks who are investing around the core product thesis in MyBacon — it's organic, it's the fastest selling plant-based meat in North America. Now, people like it. They pay a lot for it. It's going to be a profitable product that makes the planet better," Bayer said.
The focus of the new capital is to further scale MyBacon's production and availability.
The rest of the raise is to help launch the company's mushroom "hides," which are alternatives to animal-based leather and foams.
Those have attracted interest from companies like PVH Corp., which includes brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as Reformation, Vivobarefoot and Veja.
Bayer said the new funds will help the development of that business, with fashion brands and products planning to launch in the spring.
"A majority of our focus — and capital tends to follow focus — is on MyBacon this fall. We've got a hit the product. We're really just trying to make enough of it at the right price to satisfy everyone and show that we've got a really great, scalable process," Bayer said. "We're doing the same thing in leather. It's just a year behind. We started it later. It's coming to market later, and it will kind of follow in the wake of that bacon launch."
Ecovative is planning more farms to have AirMycelium growing capabilities in 2025. According to the company's announcement, several commercial mushroom farms have expressed interest in joining Ecovative’s network of partner growers, representing an additional $100 million in potential capacity.
Ecovative closed its last round in June 2023, a Series E raise of $30 million.
Since then, MyForest Foods has brought on a new CEO, landed its MyBacon product in over 1,000 stores and quadrupled its vegan bacon production space.
