MycoWorks, invested by John Legend and Natalie Portman, manufactures fungal-based biomaterials

According to foreign media reports, Natalie Portman and John Legend are joining a group of venture capitalists and fashion brands to provide financial support to MycoWorks. The company just raised $45 million in a Series B funding round to commercialize its technology, which could make a fungal-based biomaterial that could replace leather.

The company says it has signed a number of agreements as partners with some of the biggest fashion brands because it wants to bring its biomaterials into Volkswagen's shoes, wallets, belts and other goods that traditionally use cow leather or other animal skins.

"We've been working very closely with some luxury brands and a big footwear manufacturer," said Matt Scullin, CEO of MycoWorks. According to Scullin, the unnamed fashion brands have begun producing a range of products for stores, including shoes, ready-to-wear and bags.

MycoWorks likes to differentiate itself from other brands that want to bring fungi into our midst or grow new plant-based fabrics in the fashion space – companies like Bolt Threads, Ananas Anam and Desserto – with an emphasis on the durability of fabrics.

"We have tested our products in a vastly different range of applications ranging from leather-based clothing to upholstery to standard leather goods such as handbags and wallets. The key difference between our material and mushroom leather is that the structural composition is so high," Scullin said. "We are confident in the expressiveness of this material in a truly wide range of applications, so there are a wide range of uses."

To that end, MycoWorks is focused on the high-end market. "There's a misconception that brands are willing to sacrifice performance for sustainability, which is incorrect," Scullin said. "In an industry like this, when performance exists, true adoption happens."

Scullin won't say how much MycoWorks material costs, nor will he talk about which specific companies are currently working with the company's products. He did say the company hopes to eventually be price competitive not only with the traditional leather market, but also with leather alternatives in the plastics market, which is worth as much as $70 billion a year.

According to Scullin, with the company's current capacity, it can produce tens of thousands of square feet of fungal material per yard. That means MycoWorks still has a long way to go to catch up with an industry that produces billions of square feet of leather.

The money MycoWorks raises is impressive, but it also has to compete with some competitors who are gaining their own traction in the fashion industry.

In October, Bolt Threads announced the formation of a consortium with longtime partners Adidas, Stella McCartney, and fashion brands behind brands such as Balenciaga to explore products based on mushroom leather.

For investors in MycoWorks – including WTT Investment Ltd. , DCVC Bio, Valor Equity Partners, Humboldt Fund, Gruss & Co., Novo Holdings, 8VC, SOSV, AgFunder, Wireframe Ventures and Tony FadDELL – competition is to be expected. But they believe that The features of MycoWorks make it the king of the world of leather alternatives.

"Fine bacterial silk leather can be customized according to the customer's needs," says Kiersten Stead, an investor in DCVC Bio. "[It] can be customized in terms of shape, and application. Prices vary depending on the customer's application and standard. ”

MycoWorks raised a total of $62 million in funding, and the company's new funding announcement coincided with the opening of a new production facility in Emeryville, California, bringing its current capacity to tens of thousands of feet of fungal leather replacement capacity.

"The process of hyphae growth is carbon negative. Customers will look at [our products] with animal skins and say why wouldn't I choose (that)," Sculin said. "In addition, you have non-animal aspects and plastic-free aspects, which are the driving forces behind many decisions right now... For our brand partners, we are truly an advanced manufacturing company. We are driven by sustainability. We represent a way for them to change their supply chains. ”