Esencia Foods' EIC Accelerator Grows Meat on Mushroom Roots

Most meat and fish substitutes are made by forcing protein paste through an extruder to fake a fibre structure. Esencia Foods, founded in 2022 with entities in Barcelona and Berlin, grows the fibres instead: mycelium, the root network of fungi, is cultivated on legumes in tray bioreactors, a technique the food industry has used for more than a thousand years, which the company says gives natural texture from two ingredients with minimal processing and fewer additives.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project at its October 2024 cut-off for blended finance under the challenge for food from precision fermentation and algae, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,020,666.81 from June 2025 to May 2027. The stated aim was vegan whole cuts, starting with fish and seafood, because of pressure on the oceans and the shortcomings of plant-based fish. The company has since rebranded as KULT FARM, and the range it now shows is mince, chunks and slices.

The project funded fish; the company sells mince

The gap between the grant and the shop window is the most striking thing here. The EIC project is titled "Pioneering vegan whole cuts through mycelium solid state fermentation" and says Esencia is the first company in Europe to combine mycelium with enhanced solid-state fermentation for whole cuts, starting with fish and seafood. The company had shown fermentation-derived seabass and cod at the Anuga trade fair in Cologne after an EIT Food tech validation award of €50,000 in 2024.

By 2026 the old site carries a banner saying it has rebranded, "as part of a refinement of our strategic direction", and the new brand's range is mince and chunks for curries, bolognese, bowls and burger patties, promoted partly as a blend to mix with meat and cut a kitchen's costs. The headline claims also moved: the old site says two natural ingredients and three for gastronomy, the new one says five. Whole-cut fish does not appear on the new brand's product page.

Letters of intent, not contracts

What the project offers as evidence of demand is a list of 21 letters of intent: nine restaurants and two catering companies in Barcelona, a canteen and a business caterer in Germany, two chefs in Germany and Spain, four food producers in Germany and the Netherlands, and three retailers in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. The company valued them at more than €20 million a year, against a serviceable market it puts at €5.3 billion by 2028 and about €18 million of it captured by 2029.

Its other social proof is tasting rather than trade: 4,000 tasters, three development projects with food producers, and an endorsement from Diego Prado, formerly head of research at the two-Michelin-star restaurant Alchemist. Henrietta Heart of Big Idea Ventures is quoted backing the company for its ability to use fermentation to match the texture of animal products. No contract, order volume or revenue has been published, and CORDIS shows no periodic report.

1. Mycelium solid-state fermentation at scaleReportedScaled from grams to hundreds of kilograms per batch, per Invest in Berlin.
2. Products available to kitchensOfferedMince, chunks and slices listed with a price per portion.
3. Vegan whole cuts of fishNot on saleThe project's stated starting point; absent from the new brand's range.
4. Letters of intent convertedNot reportedNo customer contract or revenue announced.

A grant, an accelerator and a token platform

Esencia's disclosed money is small: the €50,000 EIT Food award, the EIC grant of about €2 million, and backing from Big Idea Ventures. The EIC award was announced in February 2025 as €2 million with EIC Fund equity possible, and no equity investment has been announced. The new brand's site invites investment through the platform tokenize.it, which is an unusual route for a food manufacturer and suggests the company is raising from small investors rather than a venture round.

Cheap, not just green

The alternative protein sector has spent a decade selling sustainability at a premium, and both of this company's brands lead with price instead: 30% cheaper than meat on the old site, from €0.80 a portion on the new one, with the carbon saving against beef as a secondary argument. That is the right lesson from the sector's recent contraction, and it is also what the EIC's precision fermentation challenge is for: making European fermentation companies cost-competitive rather than niche. Running the process near unused food side streams, which the project emphasises, is part of the same cost logic.