Feeding the world – with mushroom roots

Meat and fish alternatives are one of the biggest trends in the global food market. The environmental consequences of mass meat production are becoming increasingly clear, and overfishing is wreaking havoc on biodiversity.

Here is where the German-based company Esencia Foods comes into play. Esencia leverages mycelium, or mushroom roots, to create seafood alternatives. The company has already developed its first prototypes, showcasing strong similarities with scallops in terms of texture and appearance.

Instead of using plant-based proteins, like pea or soy powders, the founder opted for precision fermentation of mushrooms. This results in lower usage of water and space resources and more importantly enables the startup to create a fibrous texture similar to authentic seafoods. Esencia Foods products will have short list of ingredients while fulfilling all nutritional benefits of seafood such as Omega-3 and protein content.

Esencia Foods decided to leverage solid-state fermentation rather than liquid or submerged fermentation since not only capital expenditures and operational costs are lower, but also solid state fermentation is the only procedure allowing to create a pre-aligned fibrous structure in the growth process. The startup hasalready been working with patent attorneys to make sure that control of the texture of mycelium is a patentable process.

Additionally, the team is fitting: The CEO Hendrik Kaye has a strong business background and experience as a M&A consultant and in key leadership positions at a German startup’s early and growth phases. CTO Bruno Scocozza is experienced as professional cook and has a PhD in Biophysics, focusing on Synthetic Biology. We believe that combining both skill sets should enable Esencia Foods to successfully develop its end product and launch it.

Serpentine Ventures believes that alternative seafood has huge market potential and that is why we invested in this startup.