Mogu Srl, Italy-headquartered company which transforms low-value materials and residues from agro-industry into functional and high-value products, has successfully secured the backing of CDP Venture Capital, European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF VC), Kering Ventures, and Progress Tech Transfer, as part of a € 11 million series A funding round, who have taken equity stakes to allow for further industrial scaling of the company’s technologies behind their key verticals and brands, EPHEATM and MOGU.
The funding was led by CDP Venture Capital, co-led by ECBF VC, and involving key participation from Kering Ventures and from the existing shareholder Progress Tech Transfer. The recently concluded funding round represents a key milestone for the Italian company, which, since its inception, has consistently demonstrated continuous technological advancement and expansion, gaining trust among a very esteemed clientele, both domestically and internationally.
The company, whose legally registered name is currently still Mogu Srl, is already globally known as SQIM; the latter, will now become the legally official Company name, within few weeks following the closing date, the company states.
The gathered funds will allow to further capitalize on SQIM’s proprietary technological platform (i.e. biological fermentation + biochemistry) and to accelerate industrial scaling, through the deployment and launch of a new Demo production plant, characterised by multiple technological processual improvements, to incrementally impact the material innovation industry around the world and meet the burgeoning demand for quality-driven mycelium-based products, so to serve an ever-more expanded customer base with the most high-quality and high-value products, ahead of new commercial product launches and partnerships in fashion, interior, automotive, and beyond.
At the same time the funds will allow boosting overall R&D efforts, and upholding the company’s technological leadership, while further pushing the innovation frontiers in the mycelium-based sector. Finally, the raised funds will be also dedicated to expanding the company’s Team, attracting, and retaining premier industry talents, so to strengthen the company’s present and future endeavors.
By combining age-old processes with modern-day science, and leveraging on its proprietary fermentation techniques, SQIM has developed and produces a range of high-performance, low-environmental impact solutions, primarily addressing the textile, leather, interior, and automotive industries.
More specifically, besides its well-known brand MOGU, dedicated to interior design and architecture, SQIM produces EPHEATM, an entirely new class of animal-free alternatives primarily dedicated to Fashion and Automotive. Thanks to its uniquely patented fermentation technique, the Company grows the most high-quality and homogenous, raw mycelium materials to date; this is achieved by interweaving the cells of selected fungal mycelia along bespoke fermentation-based processes, to form coherent panels consisting of 100% mycelium biomass. Such raw materials are then transformed and finished in partnership with companies from the tanning industry, making use of innovative, environmentally-sound, chrome-free methodologies, and resulting in the most exquisite, sophisticated, and high-quality materials dedicated today to luxury fashion at first, and increasingly to more segments and further markets.
The fresh investment will therefore allow SQIM to further capitalize on its proprietary fermentation platform, continuing to incrementally and concretely impact the material innovation industry around the world.
“I’m extremely proud of what we just achieved”, Stefano Babbini, CEO and Co-Founder of SQIM, commented. “SQIM team has been working very hard in the last years with the mission of proving that innovation, sustainability, and industrialization can not only coexist, but even offer an added value to different industries whether properly cooked. This amazing company step represents the natural outcome of such efforts, creating the conditions for delivering a real impact in next future. There is a huge excitement around our job, and we feel like we are about to start a new journey. There is no doubt we have found the best Partners supporting our ambitious plan.”
IL BIOECONOMISTA 