The most famous mycoprotein is probably Quorn, a meat substitute that is rapidly approaching its fortieth birthday. But a Finnish biotech start-up Enifera is cooking something even older: his patented protein based on single-cell mushrooms, branded Pekilo, was originally developed in the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies – primarily by the local paper industry.
At that time, the focus was not on producing alternative protein for human consumption, as the startup intends – although the original Pekilo product was sold as animal feed. Instead, according to Enifer CEO and co-founder Simo Ellilä, paper industry engineers tried to find a solution to the problem of pollution caused by plants dumping production waste (“side streams”) into local waterways.
“It mainly began with the fact that people in the lab realized that if you left this substance on a lab bench for a weekend, a fungus would start to grow. “It was an ‘aha’ moment,” he explained.
After its discovery on the laboratory bench, mycoprotein production was developed for about 15 years, with paper industry engineers using the biorefining process and using fermentation to grow and harvest the mushrooms on a business scale. However, the fundamental goal was still wastewater treatment. This is why Pekilo fell into disuse in the early Nineties when the paper industry switched to waste incineration.
The engineering company that developed it also went bankrupt, and knowledge of Pekilo was lost, as Ellilä says – “very actively forgotten” – adding a Tolkien-style ring to the long history of this alternative protein. “Our founding team consisted of biotechnology scientists trained and educated in Finland, but we had never heard of this thing,” he told TechCrunch. “So really well forgotten.”
yet remembered. This is how the founders of the biotechnology company Enifer got here across Pekilo, which inspired them to resolve in 2020 to separate the company from the Finnish Technical Research Center VTT. The idea: revive this lost, proprietary mycoprotein and expand production to produce food (not only feed) protein.
“It was actually thanks to a very senior director of R&D who is now retired – who worked at Valio, the local dairy company – who kind of remembered the process and thought, ‘Oh, could we use this?’” recalls Ellilä. “Me and one of my co-founders got here across a public R&D project that this gentleman was involved in. We thought this was fascinating – seriously, paper engineers were making alternative proteins in the Seventies?!
“We thought it was fascinating – seriously, paper engineers made alternative proteins in the 1970s?!”
A whole lot of old-style detective work was then put into recovering as much information about the production as possible. “We started digging out everything we could find. If you knew where to look, there were still plenty of paper sources,” he said. “We did a lot of amazing detective work – we kind of literally searched through old phone books to find some of these people.”
The founders’ motivation is clear: alternative proteins are now a much more significant business goal in their very own right – driven by the growing demand for sustainable meat alternatives. Enifer is optimistic that there is a long-term probability for Pekilo’s revival. In short: mycoprotein’s best days could also be yet to come.
The first fully financed factory
The startup has just accomplished a Series B funding round to complete and launch its first factory – at a total cost of €33 million – situated in Kirkkonummi, Finland, close to the sea (which provides a source of cooling water to keep the fermentation tanks at the right temperature).
“Mushroom metabolism is really active,” Ellilä noted. “It’s like the fungus is there on the treadmill. So it really generates heat and it needs to be removed.”
Enifer says the plant will be the world’s first business facility to produce a mycoprotein ingredient from food industry by-products – or, to put it one other way, this biorefining activity involves converting waste into high-quality protein. (While the Quorn-producing fungus is normally fed with glucose.)
Series B includes €15 million in equity financing led by Finnish private equity fund Taaleri Bioindustry Fund I, in addition to further investments from existing shareholders Nordic Foodtech VC, Voima Ventures and Valio (the aforementioned dairy giant).
The Finnish Climate Fund also provided a subordinated loan of EUR 7 million to support the project. Plus Enifer has secured a €2 million climate and environmental loan from Finnver. A previously announced €12 million recycling/reuse investment grant from Business Finland has now fully funded its first factory.
Once at full scale, the fermentation and processing plant will produce 500 kg of alt protein per hour. It says it expects to start ramping up operations in 2026, but Ellilä confirmed it will take about three years to reach full production capability. If all goes well, more factories may follow suit.
One of the key differences from Pekilo for food consumption is the side jets used. The wood pulp was suitable for animal feed, but recent sidestreams were needed to increase the product’s usefulness. Dairy industry waste – resembling lactose – is waste that Enifer says works well as raw material for mushrooms, so you may see why Valio is investing.
While the alt protein space could appear quite crowded immediately, with many plant-based forms and mycoproteins already available, one other thing that’s relatively recent with Pekilo is its processing into a dry powder (steam is used to dry the mushroom after harvesting). .
Ellilä says this makes it particularly interesting for the food industry – as an ingredient with a long shelf life that could be easily added to existing recipes and processing methods.
Pekilo’s food version also has a mild and neutral flavor, making it suitable for a big selection of uses, from savory to sweet. “The product intended for feed has a very distinctive taste, but we have to carry out additional processing to make it suitable for contact with food, as a result of which the taste is completely lost,” he noted.
One of the sample products it offers to visitors is a chocolate cake with flour replaced with Pekilo. Other potential uses include patties, cold cuts, and even yogurts and cheeses. However, Enifer intends to remain a B2B player – its culinary experiments are solely aimed at showing the potential of mycoprotein to customers in the food industry.
In terms of pricing, Ellilä says it wants the product to be cheaper than pea protein – which suggests that if Pekilo is successful, it could take market share from other alternative proteins (although it also notes that there are dietary differences, which can mean that using a combination of other proteins is what is best).
“I like to think about it: what we want to achieve is trying to contribute to both lowering the cost of these products and improving the quality of the next generation of plant-based products,” he added.
Applying for authorization for a recent food
Before Enifer’s mycoprotein could be added to food for human consumption, the startup will need to obtain regulatory approval to introduce Pekilo as a novel food. So he has a long application process ahead of him.
Ellilä says they are preparing an application to regulators in the European Union and will likely focus on Singapore next, followed by the US.
He seems confident that “eventually” they will get the green light to sell Pekilo as a recent human food. “I think we have an extremely strong case… because the mycoprotein is not entirely new,” he argued.
“It’s a different species of mushroom. But it’s still not, you know, outrageous. It’s actually not that closely related – as an organism – to the Fusarium that Quorn uses. And then there are mountains of evidence about its safety in pigs, chickens and every kind of organisms.
“We have so much science from back in the day. Which is not the case with many other candidates,” he also suggested, adding, “I’m sure we’ll get it will definitely.”
Enifer is also developing Pekilo for use in pet food, which will give it a market it could access in the meantime. In addition, the use of animal feed is still being considered – harking back to Pekilo’s origins – but it is tougher to take into account the economic points, so partners will be needed.
Ellilä says it is talking to corporations with a large variety of side streams they would really like to leverage for potential partnerships. “We have definitely not given up on animal nutrition,” he said, adding: “We are in talks with many companies that would like to create a joint venture… then we wouldn’t have to provide all the capital.”