A Brussels fermentation company has pulled together about $14 million to turn a decommissioned French chemicals site into an industrial-scale mycoprotein plant — a rare first-of-a-kind factory bet at a moment when alternative protein capital has narrowed to a handful of names.

MAASH said on August 25 that it had secured EUR 12.15 million, roughly $14 million at current rates, in a package that mixes private equity with French public financing. Per EU-Startups, EUR 5.85 million came as an equity raise backed by Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Amorcage Industriel and the sugar and starch groups Nordzucker and Tereos, while Bpifrance contributed EUR 4.3 million through its Premiere Usine programme plus a EUR 2 million loan under France 2030. No valuation was disclosed. One caveat on the deal-feed version of this story: the VentureTerminal entry lists a $14 million Series A led by Bpifrance, but the published coverage does not use the Series A label and casts Bpifrance as a public financing provider rather than an equity lead.

What MAASH does

Founded in 2021 by Frederic Van Gansberghe and Gaspard Gilbert, MAASH grows fungal biomass by submerged fermentation and sells it to food manufacturers as LoCylia, an ingredient rather than a consumer brand. The pitch is substitution at the margin: reducing the meat content of an existing product by 10 to 30 percent, which is a considerably easier sell to industrial buyers than a full replacement. Belgian holding company Compagnie du Bois Sauvage, a shareholder since an earlier capital increase, describes the business as a biotechnology company specialising in alternative proteins from fungal fermentation.

The numbers behind the round

Less than half the headline figure is equity, which matters for how the round should be read: EUR 5.85 million of private money against EUR 6.3 million of Bpifrance grant and loan support tied to building a factory in France. The production base is the former Metex NOOVISTA site at Carling-Saint-Avold in Moselle, which MAASH acquired in 2024, retaining 10 workers. A 12 cubic metre demonstration unit runs there now, with a stated target of 10,000 tonnes of annual output. Bois Sauvage sets out a longer ramp: 200 tonnes in 2026, 10,000 tonnes by 2029 and 100,000 tonnes by 2035, with two further lines of 30,000 tonnes each envisaged at the site.

Why the timing matters

The investor list is the tell. Tereos and Nordzucker are not venture funds; they are agro-industrial groups that supply the sugars fermentation companies feed on, and their presence points at offtake and feedstock economics rather than a bet on consumer demand for meat alternatives. The Bpifrance component is aimed squarely at first factories, the stage where most European fermentation startups stall between pilot vessels and commercial volume.

MAASH is also changing hands operationally: Van Gansberghe moves to chairman and Gilbert to chief commercial officer, with Samah Garringer arriving as chief executive in September 2026 — the customary shift from founder-led science to someone hired to run a plant.

Source

EU-Startups — "Brussels-based MAASH secures EUR 12.15 million to take mycoprotein production to industrial scale"