In San Francisco, mycelium materials firm MycoWorks has raised $125 million in a series C financing, which it will use to expand production of leather alternatives for the fashion industry.
The company says it will build a plant in Union County, South Carolina, having validated the scalability of its Fine Mycelium process at a pilot unit in Emeryville, California. The new facility, slated to be operational in a year, will enable initial mass-production volumes of several million square feet of Fine Mycelium materials per year.
The financing was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from new investors SK Networks and Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund, in addition to other new and existing investors including DCVC Bio, Novo Holdings, and others.
“MycoWorks makes the only product that we have found that resembles animal leather’s quality, and they are producing it on a highly scalable platform,” says Ho Jeong Lee, executive vice president of SK Networks, in a press statement.