The Protein Brewery Gets $2.7M EU Grant to Launch Mycoprotein Powder for Dairy Alternatives
Dutch food tech startup The Protein Brewery has been awarded €2.3M ($2.7M) in an EU grant to commercialise its fungi-derived ingredient, with a focus on dairy alternatives.
As it inches closer to novel food approval in the EU, The Protein Brewery has received €2.3M ($2.7M) via a grant from the bloc’s climate funding programme.
The Dutch firm will use the funds to commercialise Fermotein, its protein- and fibre-rich mycoprotein ingredient, for use in dairy alternatives.
The funding came shortly after The Protein Brewery and its consortium partners Nizo Food Research, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, and an undisclosed international food company won a €570,000 ($665,000) grant from EU-backed accelerator EIT Food, aimed at bringing Fermotein to the health and wellness markets.
“These grants will strengthen our mission to futureproof non-animal proteins through innovative fungal fermentation technology, delivering ingredients that combine strong nutrition, great taste, and a significantly reduced environmental footprint,” said The Protein Brewery CFO Jan Hendrik Van Gilst.
A fungal protein that outperforms meat and plants
The new grant was awarded by the EU LIFE Programme, the bloc’s funding instrument for environment and climate action. It supports pilot- and demo-scale projects that measurably reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the deployment of sustainable technologies into the market.
Plant-based alternatives can significantly lower the emissions associated with dairy production, but many products on today’s market fall short on nutrition, taste, or affordability. That limits mass-market adoption and long-term impact, according to The Protein Brewery.
Its EU-backed project directly addresses that gap. The company uses biomass fermentation to convert fungi into nutrient-dense food with a neutral flavour and low climate impact.
Fermotein is a whole-cell bioproduct derived from Rhizomucor pusillus, an extremophilic strain that can deal with low pH levels and high temperatures. It’s grown in fermentation tanks, before being sieved, pasteurised and dried. The resulting biomass is then milled to achieve the desired particle size.
The powdered ingredient is produced in The Protein Brewery’s pilot plant in Mijkenbroek, Breda, which can churn out 100kg of the mycoprotein daily.
It is rich in prebiotic fibre and essential micronutrients, and has a complete amino acid profile, yielding 26 times more protein than meat, five times more than soy, and four times more than peas. Compared to beef, it uses just 1% of the land, consumes 5% of the water and releases 3% of the emissions.
The Protein Brewery targets dairy alternatives with Fermotein
Fermotein is geared towards the active nutrition, better-for-you snacking, and GLP-1 markets, with companies able to use it in a variety of applications, from high-protein drinks and nutrition bars to protein-boosted pancakes, tortilla chips, and muffins.
The EU LIFE Programme grant, however, is focused on non-dairy applications like milks and yoghurts. The Protein Brewery will optimise and scale its fermentation process to meet the taste and functional requirements of these alternatives, with a substantially lower environmental impact.
Concurrently, the startup will conduct application and market validation work with key players in the alt-dairy industry to demonstrate consumer acceptance and preference. Moreover, targeted health studies will investigate the nutritional and health benefits of Fermotein in dairy alternatives.
“This grant will tremendously accelerate the scaling of our groundbreaking ingredient Fermotein, significantly contributing to improving the sustainability and nutrition of the important dairy alternative market,” says Gilbert Verschelling, CTO of The Protein Brewery.
Fermotein is already approved for sale in Singapore and the US, and received a positive opinion from the European Food Safety Authority in late 2025, the penultimate step before it can enter the EU market. It’s working with several manufacturers to bring its ingredient to market in North America and Europe, including Nepra Foods and CK Ingredients.
The Protein Brewery has raised around $60M to date, including a $35M Series B round in September, whose investors included Novo Holdings, the parent company of Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk. This is notable, since the startup is exploring the potential of Fermotein as a natural GLP-1 booster, targeting a lucrative space that has turned the food industry on its head.
Speaking to Green Queen after the EFSA’s publication, CEO Thijs Bosch said the company expected “significant revenue growth in 2026 and a need to expand its fermentation capacity in the coming months”.