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The story of the biotechnology startup Mycelia Tech is a real example of inspiration.
In July 2024, the company announced on its social media that it had released the first samples of artificial eco-leather made from mushroom mycelium. It was ready to work with brands and companies interested in an eco-friendly alternative to animal leather.
The history of the startup
The co-founder, Marta Kondryn, got acquainted with the idea of growing leather from mushroom mycelium when she lived and worked abroad. She was interested in the idea because, at that time, she was already a partner in another business that makes things from genuine leather – bags, wallets, backpacks. The existence of an ecological alternative to natural leather became the impetus for her own experiments and the creation of the Mycelia Tech startup.
“As soon as we started studying mycelium, we realized that it is extremely powerful. Growing mycelium is a fairly inexpensive and simple process in terms of the resources it requires. Mycelium has a structure of fibers, which makes it as similar as possible to skin, both in structure and to the touch. Also, what is important is that mycelium can create extremely strong bonds and be involved even in building materials or to replace plastic.“
In 2022, the company participated in a product workshop within the framework of the New Economy of Ivano-Frankivsk project, financed by the European Union. Then, a batch of raw materials was purchased for the first experiments. Product workshops are a format in which you can create a new product or service, improve an existing product or service, develop a prototype or test an idea, and create multiple iterations of the product as needed. METALAB deals with this direction in the project.
Beginning of development
Marta began to create the development based on her own office in Promprylad and the biochemical laboratory at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. A scientist, Oleh Lushchak, helped launch the processes. Based on the university, Marta had the opportunity to obtain sterile conditions necessary for growing experimental samples. Here, the process of mycelium growth on the substrate and other processes requiring sterile laboratory conditions occur. In addition to the fact that the work in the laboratory made it possible to obtain the first samples of the material, it is also a good example of cooperation between business and the research and laboratory facilities of the university.
“For the New Economy of Ivano-Frankivsk project, one of the key tasks is popularising the scientific sphere. This creates opportunities for both scientists and businesses to look for and develop new solutions in their activities.” – Maryana Baran, architect, manager of product workshops at METALAB
But this was only the beginning of the journey; those first samples were significantly different from the prototype the company released in 2024 and were unsuitable for tailoring. The path to product development was just beginning.
In the fall of 2022, the company won a grant from KSE – the Kyiv School of Economics – receiving money to equip the laboratory. In the same year, Mycelia Tech was selected among the top 15 to participate in the pre-accelerator in Ukraine, organized by the EIT Jumpstarter competition and EIT Manufacturing, funded by the European Union.
In the summer of 2023, the company received an innovation voucher within the New Economy of Ivano-Frankivsk project framework. The funds were used to patent the technology of growing mycelium leather, and the company received the patent in the spring of 2024.
“At first, I did not see the need to obtain a patent for the technology. I used to believe patents are needed when there is already a big business, but this is not the case. She decided to apply for the innovation voucher program, and after becoming one of the twenty winners, she applied for patent registration and trademark registration together with a patent attorney. The most interesting was the patent preparation process – we worked with a specialist and prescribed everything, these are quite interesting processes, it was something new for me. I described the main theses, and the technical specialist analyzed the existing technologies, compared them, and described the formula. We received a lot of recommendations for our process going forward. “
In the fall of 2023, the startup becomes the winner of the ClimateLaunchpad national selection, having previously entered the Regional Final from Ukraine. The Greencubator organization in Ukraine has organized the ClimateLaunchpad global competition of innovative ideas for the 8th year in a row. The company competed with twenty other participants at the pre-seed and seed-round stages who presented climate-friendly ideas at Green Pitch Day.
The first prototype
Finally, in the summer of 2024, the company announced that it was ready to partner with brands, presenting the first prototype of eco-leather ready for production.
“In the summer of 2024, we released the first MVPs for small-scale production, but we are still refining the technology. Now we cooperate with the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, NAS of Ukraine. We also announced the start of cooperation with brands. What are our expectations from such cooperation? We need to receive feedback and produce the first batches of finished products at this stage.
We have been working on the project since October 2021, that is, it took almost three years to get the first mycelium skin sample ready for test sewing. Work on the final version of the material has not yet been completed. Among our plans is to fully complete the improvement of the first product MVP with the help of internal tests, feedback from partners, and collaboration with scientists. Also, our product is awaiting certification. This is a mandatory step, the certificate is a requirement of our purchasing partners abroad. And the most important thing for us now is to get out of laboratory conditions into full-scale production.”
Why should a startup endure such a difficult path, waiting three years for the first prototypes to test the product? Marta also has an answer to this question, and it is as inspiring as her company’s success story.
“We want to create an alternative material to leather because we believe that every person deserves to use the best, ecological material that is created without harming the environment. Such materials already exist in the world, and they are already a trend. Ukraine can also take its place in the world in this field. It is important for me to remove mycelium from the status of material for exhibitions so that it does not seem inaccessible and can only be used in laboratories. I want everyone to have the opportunity to interact with the mycelium. Therefore, we want to manufacture ready-made products for immediate use. “
