Europe’s tightening stance on chemical pesticide use is accelerating investor interest in next‑generation crop‑disease solutions, reflected in the €2.4 million pre‑seed round raised by Mycoverse, a biological crop‑protection spin‑out from the Technical University of Denmark
The round was co‑led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with participation from PINC, the venture arm of global food and beverage company Paulig. Mycoverse has also recieved seperate significant financial backing through the BioInnovation Institute’s (BII) start-up incubation programme.
The fresh capital will enable Mycoverse to ramp up field trials and scale development of its first product targeting potato late blight – one of the continent’s most destructive diseases and a €1.9 billion global market opportunity.
Regulation and resistance drive appetite for new solutions
Europe’s crop protection landscape is undergoing a structural shift. Regulatory pressure to phase out chemical actives, combined with rising resistance to the products that remain on the market, has created a powerful pull for biological alternatives.
“As chemical crop protection products are phased out and growers are increasingly dealing with resistance to products that are still on the market, the need for new solutions has never been clearer,” said Kim Wagenaar, Investment Director at Future Food Fund. “Mycoverse combines AI-driven discovery with advanced fungal production technology to deliver biological solutions that can match field performance while reducing systemic environmental pressure.”
That combination of performance, sustainability and scalability is rapidly becoming a priority for investors seeking technologies capable of operating in a post‑chemical crop‑protection era.
AI-enabled discovery meets advanced fungal production
Mycoverse’s platform combines AI-driven discovery with a proprietary fungal production system, positioning it to identify and scale novel bioactive compounds at a pace investors describe as “unheard of” in the biocontrol sector.
Its discovery engine screens fungal strains from DTU’s unique 40‑year research collection to identify candidates capable of tackling persistent fungal diseases. Lead solutions have already shown strong performance in greenhouse trials.
“The rapid development of their potato blight candidates, achieved in just five months, demonstrates the strength and efficiency of their platform,” said Christian Kannemeier, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF.
Mycoverse CEO and co‑founder Svend Petersen said the new funding will allow the company to “rapidly expand our field trials programme, bringing us closer to delivering reliable biological crop protection products that farmers can adopt without changing their existing practices.”
PINC: Market pull and platform versatility were decisive
PINC – whose investment thesis centres on reducing chemical inputs in global food systems – said the combination of market demand, scientific credibility and scalability drove its involvement at such an early stage.
“The combination of a large problem with pull from the market, strong IP position, promising results for the first strains and a stellar team that can scale production at a competitive price was compelling,” Rosemari Herrero, Senior Investment Manager at PINC, told AgTechNavigator.
She added that Mycoverse’s AI‑driven platform stood out from other biocontrol discovery approaches due to its speed and depth. “They can be extremely quick; the speed is almost unheard of.”
PINC will be watching several milestones over the next 12-24 months: successful field trials, efficient scale‑up of biological production, and selection of its next disease target.
Beyond potatoes: grapevines next, more crops to follow
While potato late blight is the company’s priority target, its pipeline is already expanding. Mycoverse’s second product will target downy mildew in grapevines – another crop where chemical restrictions are tightening – and a third disease area will be selected to demonstrate the versatility of its platform.
PINC sees strong potential in grapevines, cereals and horticultural crops more broadly – segments highly exposed to both disease pressure and chemical‑use reduction policies.
“As a food company reliant on sustainable agricultural value chains, we see significant potential in technologies that reduce chemical inputs without compromising reliability,” Herrero said. “Solutions that help maintain yields while supporting soil health, biodiversity and long-term food security are essential for a resilient food system.”
A sector poised for rapid growth
As regulators, agribusiness and food companies push for biologically based protection tools, investors are positioning themselves at the earliest stages of discovery. Mycoverse’s oversubscribed pre‑seed round underscores that momentum – and signals confidence that AI‑enabled biocontrol platforms can deliver the speed, reliability and scale the market now demands.
Mycoverse’s raise comes amid activity across Europe’s biological crop protection sector, fuelled by both investor appetite and accelerating regulatory reform. Major players are moving decisively into the space – most notably Syngenta, which in November 2025 signed a development and commercialisation agreement with French greentech firm Amoéba to bring a new bio‑fungicide to EU and UK cereal growers, signalling strong corporate commitment to next‑generation biocontrol solutions.
At the same time, the European Commission’s announced plan to streamline biopesticide and biocontrol authorisation, cutting approval timelines that currently stretch up to nine years, has been widely welcomed as a critical catalyst for the sector’s expansion.
Together, these shifts are creating a more favourable landscape for start-ups like Mycoverse, whose AI‑driven discovery platforms are emerging as Europe signals its intent to scale sustainable alternatives to chemical crop protection.
