Enifer is a biotech start-up based in Espoo, Finland, founded in 2020. We harness the power of fungal fermentation to upcycle agrifood industry byproducts into nutritious mycoprotein ingredients.
We’re building on a proud history of Finnish innovation – our PEKILO® process was originally developed and commercialized already in 1975! We’ve taken this ingenious piece of engineering many steps further and are ready to feed the world.
In the 1960s the world was expected to run out of protein in the face of exponential population growth. This spurred scientists to look for new ways to produce protein.
In Finland, research started on converting forest industry side streams into protein using fungi.
After 12 years of lab work, scale-up, animal trials and piloting, the world’s first mycoprotein factory was built in Jämsänkoski, Finland.
The plant produced up to 10.000 tons of PEKILO®-mycoprotein from spent sulfite liquor, a by-product from paper making
PEKILO®-production in Finland ends. No more by-products are available from the pulp&paper industry, and integration into globalizing markets brings in cheap imported soya for food and feed
A group of scientists from the Technical Research Centre of Finland decide to revive the production of PEKILO® – the Original Mycoprotein. The fungus that has been dormant at -80C for three decades, is woken up to feed the world again. The company Enifer is launched to drive development and commercialization.
At the heart of our process is the PEKILO® fungus, which we grow in tanks in a process that resembles brewing. We use fungi’s remarkable ability to grow on just about anything to upcycle agri-food industry by-products into sustainable, nutritious mycoprotein ingredients.
No virgin raw materials: The PEKILO® process is unique among mycoproteins in using a wide range of by-product streams as raw material. Our process can run on renewable energy, making our overall CO2 footprint very low. Unlike growing plants, our process also does not require new land to be used and the water use is neglible.
During the past few years we have grown into a team of 22, bringing in amazing experts in food science, industrial engineering, finance and more.
