Swedish startup Millow raises €2 million to scale low-water mycelium protein

Gothenburg-based foodtech company Millow has raised €2 million in a funding round led by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Magnus Emilson, with Vitamin Well co-founder Jan Enhager joining as an investor and strategic adviser. The round also includes two Swedish tech founders with combined exits of more than $2 billion, alongside strategic private investors from the Swedish food sector. Millow produces fungi-based protein ingredients for foodservice and retail by fermenting Swedish oats with mycelium, using just 3–4 litres of water per kilogram and no binders or additives. The funding will be used to expand production capacity and strengthen its commercial team as it targets Nordic foodservice customers.  Millow is a foodtech company founded in 2020 and based in Gothenburg, developing fungi-based protein ingredients for the foodservice and retail markets. The company uses solid-state fermentation to combine Swedish oats with mycelium, producing a protein ingredient made from two core inputs without binders or additives. Its technology is designed to use relatively low amounts of water during production and can also be adapted to other plant-based raw materials, including industrial side streams. Millow’s work builds on more than 25 years of research into fermentation and fungi-based proteins, with the company focusing on developing scalable ingredients that can be used in existing food preparation formats. The company is backed by the EU’s EIC Accelerator and is expanding its work with foodservice and distribution partners in the Nordic market. “This round gives us the capacity and the commercial team to serve foodservice customers at the volumes they need,” says Fredrik Öhrn, CEO of Millow. “The job now is disciplined commercial execution, and what matters as much as the capital is who it comes from. Jan and Magnus bring experience and a network we would otherwise spend years building. I approach this phase with real humility: the team and the advisers around us matter every bit as much as the technology.” Millow’s patented solid-state fermentation turns Swedish oats and mycelium into a clean-label protein made from two core ingredients, with no binders or additives. The process uses 3 to 4 litres of water per kilogram of product, and RISE has independently verified the carbon footprint at 0.32 kg CO₂e per kilogram, around 98 per cent lower than Swedish beef. Emilson is a Gothenburg-based serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of building and backing companies, from co-founding the internet consultancy Mind in 1996 to early stakes in TradeDoubler and NA-KD, among other ventures. His engagement with Millow builds on his background in hospitality: he is the founder of Visit Group, a leading provider within hospitality tech, and a co-founder of ESS Group, the hospitality group behind around 14 destination hotels and resorts across Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and a portfolio of restaurants. He has followed Millow since 2025. Enhager co-founded Vitamin Well, one of Europe’s most successful functional-nutrition groups, with annual revenue of approximately €650 million. “I have spent decades building companies in technology and hospitality, and from the restaurant and hotel side I can see the demand for a protein like this coming,” says Magnus Emilson, lead investor. “The hard part is the technology, and that is what Millow has. I first invested in 2025 because I believed in what the team was building. Increasing my stake now is the natural next step.” The capital funds an expansion of Millow’s production capacity and the build-out of its commercial team for the Nordic foodservice market. Millow’s ingredient is fungal rather than plant-based, and it handles in the kitchen like the formats chefs already use. “With Vitamin Well we saw how fast a better product can move from niche to mainstream once the taste and the format are right,” says Jan Enhager, investor and strategic adviser. “Foodservice protein is at that point now. Millow gives kitchens a clean-label product that does not ask them to change how they cook, and in my experience that is what decides whether a category crosses over. It is why I am backing Millow with both capital and time.” Alongside the round, the European Patent Office has confirmed that the nine-month opposition period for Millow’s core patent (EP 4 307 913) has closed with no oppositions filed. The patent protects the low-water production method at the core of Millow’s process. Millow is in close discussions with major foodservice operators and distributors in the Nordics, with international interest growing in parallel. Click to read more funding news.