As concerns over global food security and environmental sustainability continue to rise, the demand for alternative protein sources has accelerated. This shift is driving innovations across global food systems, aiming to both nourish a growing population and nurture environmental sustainability. In response, companies are increasingly exploring innovative ways to produce food with a significantly reduced environmental footprint.
Going to extremophiles
Nature’s Fynd is making waves in reshaping the development of alternative proteins. At the core of this is Fy™, a fungi-based protein derived from an extremophile, Fusarium sp. strain flavolapis. This strain was discovered in a volcanic hotspring at the Yellowstone National Park. Extremophiles are mainly species of microorganisms that are able to live in extreme conditions, including extreme temperature, pressure, radiation, salinity, or pH level.
While the organism was not originally studied for food production, Nature’s Fynd CEO Thomas Jonas recognized its potential and proposed its use as a sustainable protein source. Through a proprietary fermentation process, the company is able to produce a nutritious fungal protein using only a fraction of the resources required by traditional agriculture.
Environmental and production considerations
A 2023 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) assessment found that fermentation-derived food products could require up to 90% less land than conventional beef production. Research has also identified fermentation as a promising approach for producing next-generation food products, with fermented products generally requiring less land and water and generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional farming. Since Fy™ is produced through fermentation instead of conventional agriculture, its production approach can reduce reliance on agricultural land and associated resource inputs.
Nature’s Fynd uses computer vision and deep learning to monitor changes in its fungal biomass, helping to assess how factors such as nutrient levels influence growth and characteristics like texture. By linking these observations to cultivation conditions, the company can refine the fermentation process and improve consistency as production scales.
Putting microbial protein on the menu
Nature’s Fynd has advanced its growth trajectory through a significant capital investment and strategic commercialization. In 2021, the company raised $350 million in a Series C funding round, led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, with the participation of Blackstone and Balyasny Asset Management. Consequently, its funding reached over $500 million, reinforcing strong confidence in its novel protein platform.
The funding supported the company’s growth and production expansion, including the use of automation and robotics in the commercial-scale production of Fy. The company scaled manufacturing operations at its facility in Chicago’s historic Union Stockyards, signaling a clear transition from innovation to market readiness.
Building a fungal-based food platform
Nature’s Fynd has developed a portfolio of technologies focused on the cultivation and application of filamentous fungal biomass, with potential uses spanning alternative proteins and other food products. The following featured patents highlight key aspects of this work, including approaches to improving fungal cultivation, producing structured fungal biomass, and incorporating fungal material into food formulations.
Fungal biomats from air-medium colloids
Growing filamentous fungi through conventional submerged fermentation can require substantial aeration, agitation, energy, and infrastructure. Limited oxygen availability and shear forces from mixing can restrict fungal growth, while newer low-agitation systems may still struggle to provide sufficient oxygen and surface area for fungal development.
U.S. Patent No. 11,466,245 presents a method for cultivating filamentous fungi using an air-medium colloid (AMC), in which air is dispersed throughout a fermentation medium to improve oxygen availability. The AMC can function as a self-contained growth system and may include stabilizers, gelation agents, viscosity modifiers, humectants, or other additives to support fungal growth.
By culturing fungi in or on the aerated medium, the method produces a coherent fungal biomat with properties such as thickness, density, tensile strength, and carbohydrate content. The resulting biomat may be used in food, structural, and textile materials, offering a potentially lower-energy approach to producing fungal biomass while expanding its applications.
The patent, titled “Methods for culturing filamentous fungi in fermentation media”, was filed on October 15, 2021, and granted on October 11, 2022. The listed inventors are Michael John Harney, Richard Eugene Macur, and Yuval Charles Avniel. Legal representation was provided by Sheridan Ross.
Fungal-based meat alternatives for jerky production
Conventional processed meats such as jerky can be high in salt, sugar, and fat, while their moisture content can limit shelf life without substantial dehydration. Vegan and hypoallergenic alternatives address some of these concerns but may struggle to match the taste, texture, stability, and shelf life of conventional meat. This creates an opportunity for fungal-based products that better replicate meat’s sensory qualities while offering improved nutritional and dietary properties.
U.S. Patent No. 12,089,615 discloses filamentous fungal food compositions and methods for producing them as analogs of conventional non-fungal foods, particularly meat products such as jerky. The invention uses filamentous fungal biomass that can be processed with solutions containing ingredients such as salt, seasonings, and edible proteins, followed by dehydration.
In some embodiments, the fungal biomass is processed under sub-atmospheric pressure, allowing the material to take up the solution while controlling its moisture content. This approach is intended to produce fungal-based meat analogs with desirable taste, texture, stability, and shelf life while potentially reducing reliance on the high levels of salt and sugar commonly used in conventional jerky processing.
The patent titled “Food products comprising filamentous fungal material” was filed on May 25, 2023, and granted on September 17, 2024. The listed inventors are Baljit Ghotra, Yuval Avniel, Brian Klopf, Jessica Kawabata, Eric Carre, and Eleanore Brophy Eckstrom. Legal representation was provided by Sheridan Ross.
Fungal particles for stable, nutritious food alternatives
Many popular foods, including ice cream, mayonnaise, margarine, and whipped cream, are colloidal products that may contain animal-derived or allergenic ingredients. While vegan and hypoallergenic alternatives exist, they can suffer from phase separation and struggle to match the taste, texture, and sensory qualities of conventional products.
U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2025/0151750 discloses colloidal food products containing particles of filamentous fungi, along with methods for producing these products. The fungal particles can function as stabilizers within the colloidal mixture and may also serve as a supplemental or replacement source of protein.
The invention can therefore be applied to analogs of conventional colloidal foods, including products such as ice cream and mayonnaise. By incorporating edible filamentous fungal particles into these formulations, the technology aims to address stability and nutritional limitations while producing food alternatives that retain desirable taste, texture, and other sensory characteristics.
The patent titled “Colloidal food products comprising filamentous fungal particles” was filed on January 31, 2022 and was published on May 15, 2025. The listed inventors are Jessica Okane Kawabata, Eleanore Brophy Eckstrom, Baljit Singh Ghotra, Yuval Charles Avniel, Sébastien Raymond Canonne, Nahla Kreidly, Shantanu Agarwal, Brian Klopf .
Nature’s Fynd: Patenting Activity
Nature’s Fynd patent activity reflects the development of its fungi-based platform and bringing Fy™ to the market. Filing activity was the highest in 2019, during an early period of developing and protecting the underlying technology. In 2021, patent activity coincided with the launch of its first Fy™ products and a major investment to expand production and its product portfolio. Filings continued as the company expanded Fy™ into retail and introduced additional food products, including meatless breakfast patties and dairy-free cream cheese.
Nature’s Fynd’s: Top Law Firms
Among the law firms supporting Nature’s Fynd’s patent portfolio, Sheridan Ross stands out as the clear leader. J A Kemp and Aoyama and Partners form a secondary tier, indicating a smaller but notable group of representatives involved in Nature’s Fynd’s intellectual property activities.
Beyond these leading firms, representation becomes more broadly distributed, with Spruson & Ferguson, Madderns, and Dr. Shlomo Cohen & Co. forming a closely grouped middle tier. ROBIC, Liu Shen & Associates, Lee International IP & Law, and Gowling WLG comprise a further tier of representatives with more limited but consistent involvement.
Nature’s Fynd: Top Technology Areas
Nature’s Fynd’s patent activity is heavily concentrated in food and microorganism technologies, with food and beverage preparation (A23L) growing as the leading technology area. This indicates the company’s focus on developing food products and ingredients from fungal biomass, particularly through fermentation-based production. Significant activity is also found in microorganism and enzyme technologies (C12N), fermentation and enzyme-based processes (C12P), and apparatus for microbiology and enzymology (C12M), highlighting the underlying cultivation and processing technologies supporting its fungi-based platform.
Further patent activity is found in food applications including dairy products (A23C) and confectionery and cocoa products (A23G), indicating efforts to apply fungal-derived ingredients across different food formats. Genetic engineering technologies within (C12N) further point to efforts to develop and modify microorganisms used in production. Smaller concentrations in protein compositions (A23J) and material-related technologies (C08J, D06N) suggest potential applications beyond food.