By Janet Kanters

Mycoverse, a Danish agri-tech company specializing in biological crop protection, has raised €2.4 million (US$2.8 million) in pre-seed funding to tackle potato late blight. The funding round was co-led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with additional support from PINC, the venture arm of Paulig.

The investment will enable Mycoverse to conduct two years of field trials aimed at validating its innovative fungal-based solutions for commercial use.

Potato late blight, a disease that costs the global agricultural industry an estimated €1.9 billion annually, is the company’s initial focus, with plans to expand its platform to other crops, such as grapevines, in the future.

“This funding allows us to rapidly expand our field trials program, bringing us closer to delivering reliable biological crop protection products that farmers can adopt without changing their existing practices,” said Svend Petersen, CEO and co-founder of Mycoverse.

Mycoverse’s approach combines an AI-driven discovery platform with advanced fungal production technology to identify and develop bioactive solutions that offer superior crop protection. The company’s lead candidates have already shown promising results in greenhouse trials, demonstrating their potential to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.

With this latest funding, Mycoverse aims to accelerate the shift toward biological crop protection, offering farmers tools to enhance crop resilience while reducing environmental impact.