UK – Magical Mushroom Company, a London, UK-based sustainable packaging company harnessing the magic of mushrooms, raised £3m in seed funding.
The round was led by Ecovative Design LLC with participation by Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity Robert Del Naja, and Marcus Watson – an co-founder of Adoreum Partners, who brought 30 investors in. The company intends to use the funds to fund the opening of its first raw material production plant. The 10,000 square foot raw material plant due to open in Beeston, Nottinghamshire will be Magical Mushroom Company’s fourth plant and will allow the company to gain control of its entire packaging manufacturing process, creating up to 15 jobs in the East Midlands. Part of this funding will allow Magical Mushroom Company to implement automation upgrades at its existing packaging plants in the UK and Bulgaria to scale production as well as lower costs and the pricing structure. Magical Mushroom Company provides a direct replacement for plastic-based packaging such as polystyrene and cardboard.Led by Paul Gilligan, CEO & founder, Magical Mushroom Company puts agricultural waste to work by combining it with mycelium – the root structure of a mushroom – to create a material that is biodegradable, durable and comparable in price to traditional packaging derived from fossil fuels like polystyrene. Since 2020, the company has produced over 500,000 pieces of Mushroom® Packaging and by 2023 will have effectively removed more than 1,000 tonnes of EPS packaging from landfill. Its blue-chip client base of international brands already includes Raymarine, BA Components, Castrads, Ffern, Selfridges, Lush, Seedlip and ID Watch, among many others. 27/06/2022
