€12.15m · Other round · Foodtech · Brussels, Belgium
Brussels-based fermentation company MAASH has secured a €12.15m financing package to launch a 12 m³ demonstration plant for its LoCylia mycoprotein ingredient at Carling-Saint-Avold in France. The Bpifrance announcement says five new investors joined the equity round: Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Bpifrance Amorçage Industriel, Nordzucker and Tereos.
The headline package is blended financing rather than a single equity cheque. It comprises €5.85m in equity, €4.3m of Bpifrance support through the France 2030-backed Première Usine programme, and a €2m Bpifrance Prêt d'Amorçage Investissement loan. MAASH says the funding will support the demonstration unit and prepare a later scale-up towards 10,000 tonnes of annual production; that industrial capacity is planned, not yet operating.
MAASH leadership team. Image: MAASH, via Bpifrance press room.
A demonstration plant has to prove the ingredient and the process
MAASH develops LoCylia, a fermentation-derived fungal protein sold as a B2B ingredient for food manufacturers. The company says customers can use it in hybrid formulations that reduce meat content by 10% to 30%, or in vegan and vegetarian products. Its product material also positions the ingredient for pet food and highlights texture, digestibility and a complete amino-acid profile; these are company claims rather than independent performance findings.
For manufacturers, the proposition depends on more than producing protein in a fermenter. MAASH must deliver a consistent ingredient whose sensory and functional properties survive recipe development, while reaching a cost and supply profile that works in mass-market food. The 12 m³ plant is therefore a commercial proof point as well as a technical one: it must generate enough repeatable output for customers to formulate, test and qualify products before a 10,000-tonne line is justified.
Existing infrastructure shortens the route, but not the validation
MAASH acquired the former Metabolic Explorer site at Carling-Saint-Avold in 2024. That gives the company an industrial base instead of requiring a greenfield build, but the current financing still starts with a demonstration unit. The distinction matters: an acquired site can reduce infrastructure lead time, yet MAASH still has to show that yield, quality and unit economics hold as the process moves from demonstration to industrial volumes.
The investor group is also part of the operating model. Vegconomist reports that Tereos will supply fermentation substrates and technical support, while Nordzucker adds another large sugar producer to the shareholder base. Sugar is a feedstock for the fermentation process, so those relationships may help connect raw-material supply with industrial scale-up rather than leaving the company to solve production inputs after the plant is built.
MAASH has appointed Samah Garringer as CEO for this phase, effective September 2026. The company and EU-Startups cite more than 25 years of experience across food, ingredients and industrial scale-up, including roles at DSM, Avril Group and ENOUGH Foods. Her immediate test is specific: turn the demonstration project into dependable customer supply and commercial demand before the larger production target becomes an operating reality.
Sources checked:
Bpifrance / MAASH announcement · EU-Startups reporting · MAASH product page · Vegconomist reporting · Agra reporting · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
Image: MAASH, via Bpifrance press room.
