Mycocycle cultivates white-rot mushrooms to break down waste and produce renewable, bio-based polymers and materials. The company selects fungal strains via natural selection and does not genetically modify them. It operates bio-processors that maintain optimal temperatures (about 60–80°F) for roughly two-week cycles and kills the fungi at the end of a run to prevent continued growth. Outputs can be used as insulation, acoustic panels, or filler; fungi can encase rubber in mycelial webs that Mycocycle can reprocess. The startup is refining a process to recycle crumb rubber from old tires and demonstrated its system on scrap drywall from a Meta data center. Founder and CEO Joanne Rodriguez, who started the company in 2018, aims to capture a portion of the large plastics market and compete with legacy materials companies. Mycocycle expects to bring in over $1 million in revenue this year and says it will be margin positive. Mycocycle leverages a patent-pending, fungi-driven process to detoxify and transform building and industrial waste—including asphalt shingles, insulation board, crumb rubber, gypsum drywall, and fibers—into a renewable, low-carbon mycelium-based raw material. The company blends lab-cultivated fungi with debris at the point of waste generation to neutralize petroleum-derived contaminants and reduce environmental contamination from burial or burning. Its process is designed to drive circularity in the construction supply chain, divert waste from landfills, and lessen the need for virgin material extraction. Since launching, Mycocycle has treated 12,000 pounds of material through paid pilots with customers across waste management, recycling, and manufacturing, and with building owners and contractors such as META and Lendlease. The startup plans to validate reuse of its biobased byproduct and scale deployment within the built environment. Led by founder and CEO Joanne Rodriguez, the company was founded in 2018.

Total raised

$6M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2024