Mycoverse secures 2.4 million euros pre-seed

The Danish AgriTech start-up Mycoverse has closed a pre-seed financing of 2.4 million euros. The company develops biological plant protection solutions based on fungi to create a sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides and combat key plant diseases in Europe.

Spin-out from research with a clear market focus

The company is a spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and transfers current research from microbiology and bioeconomy into marketable applications. The aim is to make agricultural production systems more resilient without fundamentally changing existing cultivation practices.

The financing is led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds. PINC, the venture arm of the food company Paulig, is also involved.

Focus on potato blight as an economically significant problem

The capital will be used to carry out extensive field trials over the next two years in order to drive forward the commercial validation of the first product solution. The initial focus is on combating potato late blight, one of the most serious plant diseases in Europe with an estimated global market potential of around 1.9 billion euros.

Agricultural businesses are under increasing pressure: regulatory requirements to reduce the use of chemical pesticides are increasing, while resistance to existing active ingredients is growing. This is precisely where the company is positioning itself with biological alternatives.

AI-supported identification of effective fungal strains

The core of the technology is an AI-based discovery platform that specifically identifies promising fungal strains and develops bioactive active ingredients from them. These are combined with a scalable production technology to produce high-performance biological crop protection solutions on an industrial scale.

The products should be able to be seamlessly integrated into existing agricultural processes. The first candidates have already achieved convincing results in greenhouse trials.

Sustainable agriculture as a field of innovation and growth

The European crop protection market is in a state of flux: sustainability requirements, biodiversity targets and new regulatory frameworks are driving demand for bio-based solutions. At the same time, farmers continue to need reliable and economical methods to secure yields.

Against this backdrop, the company sees considerable scaling potential for its platform technology. In the future, this will also be extended to other crops, including vines.

Scaling via further applications planned

In the long term, the start-up wants to establish its technology as a broadly applicable platform for biological crop protection. In addition to additional crops, the focus is on collaborations with the agricultural and food industries in order to build sustainable value chains and reduce dependence on chemical inputs.