Mycorena fostering the next generation of food startups: New collaboration with promising Danish startup, Tempty Foods

Mycoprotein is becoming a highly demanded source of protein on the plant-based market. To bring the industry forward, Mycorena is proud to support startups’ development and scaling. By collaborating with the promising startup, Tempty Foods, Mycorena is bringing to life a new generation of mycoprotein food brands.

Mycoprotein is the way forward

Investments in the fermentation technology market grew by 285 percent during 2021 and fermentation companies accounted for one-third of all investments in alternative proteins*. Mycoprotein is becoming the centre of attention for both startups and large companies because of its nutritional value, great texture, and sustainability promise.

Mycoprotein is produced in large fermentation tanks using less space and less fresh water than what is commonly used for traditional plant or animal agriculture. Since it is grown indoors, it is also not reliant on weather conditions, which are becoming less and less predictable due to climate change.

A new generation of mycoprotein products

Although mycoproteins have naturally been part of our diets for centuries, for example in traditional Indonesian cuisine, in the past three decades, Quorn has introduced mycoprotein to consumers through a portfolio of meat-like products. Their focus on creating a consumer brand left space for new-rising companies like Mycorena to join the room with a different goal.

Mycorena's ambition is to contribute to a sustainable protein shift by offering their mycoprotein Promyc as an ingredient to other companies. In this way Mycorena can help to bring a much more comprehensive range of healthy, delicious and sustainable products to the market than by developing the final products themselves. This is one of many reasons why Mycorena decided to team up with Tempty Foods, a company with a unique product that dares to defy the trend of developing products reassembling meat.

“Our ambition is to empower other brands to create innovative food products. We believe that collaborations like this will be the key to bringing the industry forward and lead to a much-needed innovation in consumer offerings”, Ebba Fröling, COO at Mycorena.

The dialogue between Mycorena and Tempty Foods started in a late afternoon in 2021 when Martina Lokajova, CEO and Co-founder at Tempty Foods, reached out to Mycorena's COO Ebba Fröling in her search for mycoprotein. Martina says, “Working with Mycorena has had a big impact on our startup. Thanks to their team's openness to collaborate early on in our journey, we managed to accelerate our product development and stay focused on bringing innovative products to the market.“

Tempty Foods’ story: Gaining attention

Tempty Foods is one of the startups developing new types of mycoprotein-based products with a mission to empower the consumer to shift toward a more sustainable and healthy diet.

The startup was founded by three young entrepreneurs, Ana Pejic, Cecilie Engvang Lund, and Martina Lokajova, at the Danish Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2021. The team is using mycelium (Promyc) mixed with other plant-based ingredients, and the first product is Tempty, a unique product used as a new alternative to tofu and meat.

Martina, Co-founder & CEO at Tempty Foods, adds: “Since we do not try to mimic meat, we can focus on creating products that taste great in their own way and have good nutritional value.” This new approach that differentiates Tempty from other meat alternatives, combined with the use of Promyc, has brought the team much positive attention from both the consumer and investor sides.

“Some of the challenges we have been hearing from consumers around plant-based options were the lack of good texture and flavour. Using Promyc as a core ingredient for Tempty gives our products a texture with a bite and a base umami flavour which has become sought after by many consumers”, Ana Pejic, Co-founder & CPO at Tempty Foods.

Tempty is expected to be launched on the Danish market in Q3 2022.

The ambition for the collaboration

Partnerships like this enable both companies to focus on unlocking the full potential of innovation by bringing different competencies to the table, accelerating the much-needed transition to alternative protein sources.

“It is important for startups to find partners who can understand their challenges as a young company. The fact that our team went through a similar journey not so long ago helps us to understand and support their goals and needs in the best way possible”, Dr Ramkumar Nair, Founder and CEO at Mycorena.

The collaboration between Mycorena, Tempty Foods, and other innovative food brands will enable a promising future where consumers can feel like they don't need to compromise to eat better for themselves and the planet. It is an actual win-win situation for everyone involved.

As the Tempty Foods team says, stay tempted because new products are coming!