Libre Foods is a Spanish biotech based in Barcelona focused on developing mycelium-based ingredients for meat alternatives. Its core work targets creating low-cost mycelium with improved texture, nutrition, and organoleptic qualities for plant-based meat. The company plans to build an advanced high-throughput screening platform combining rapid imaging robotics and machine learning to discover and optimize fungi strains and applications, which it says could increase R&D efficiency by more than 800 times. The platform's first task is to develop a low-cost mycelium ingredient to expand the company’s business model and revenue streams. Libre Foods has already launched mushroom-based bacon in Spanish restaurants, Carrefour Spain, and via the Burger Warriors campaign, and has unveiled a mycelium-grown whole-cut chicken breast from a strain not considered a novel food, which it expects to commercialize soon. Financially, Libre Foods secured a €2.2M investment in 2022 and has now received a €335K Neotec grant, bringing total raised capital to over $3.1M. Libre Foods uses a fermentation process to create mycelium biomass structures that it combines with food science to produce whole-muscle cut meat products. Its first product, Libre Bacon, is planned to launch in Spain during 2022 with a wider European rollout pending regulatory approval. The company established its headquarters and laboratory in Barcelona in 2021 and is accelerating development of chicken and whole-meat products. Libre closed a €2.2M seed round to fund commercialization and product development. Investors in the round include Veg Capital, ProVeg International, Arturo Elizondo, and David Brandes. The startup is expanding its team across fermentation, product development, marketing, and business development. Because the European Food Safety Authority currently classes mycelium-based products as novel foods, commercial development in Europe is not yet permitted.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Grant

Latest activity

Dec 2023