Biotech startup Mykor raises £4m led by Clean Growth Fund with Green Angel Ventures
This article covers Mykor, a biotech startup that has raised £4m in a seed funding round led by Clean Growth Fund. The financing aims to scale Mykor’s production and develop a replicable manufacturing model for UK and European markets, supporting manufacturers and contractors seeking lower-carbon construction materials.
Mykor, a biotech startup that grows low-carbon construction products from industrial and agricultural waste, has raised £4 million in a seed funding round led by Clean Growth Fund. The financing — which also includes participation from the British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund via The FSE Group, Green Angel Ventures and support from Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme — will be used to scale production and develop a replicable manufacturing model for key UK and European markets.
Why it matters
Buildings and construction are a major source of emissions globally. The built environment accounts for roughly 39% of greenhouse gas emissions, with about 11% coming from embodied carbon in materials and 28% from operational energy use. Conventional insulation and panel materials are often high-carbon, non-renewable and combustible, creating a persistent emissions problem for developers and contractors as standards tighten.
Mykor’s funding comes at a moment of regulatory pressure: the UK Government’s Future Homes Standard and the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are pushing the sector to cut both operational and embodied emissions. For contractors and manufacturers under these rules, lower-carbon raw materials that can be deployed without reworking supply chains have growing commercial appeal.
Inside the product
Mykor uses a biofabrication process that grows construction products from agricultural and industrial waste in days. The method combines engineered mycelium strains, green chemistry additives and automated manufacturing to create prefabricated walls and cavity wall insulation. The company says its approach can be integrated into existing production lines and construction systems, enabling manufacturers and contractors to adopt biomaterials without major changes to their processes.
Its first product, MykoSIP, is a preassembled partition wall system. Mykor estimates MykoSIP delivers a carbon saving of about 23kgCO₂e per m² compared with incumbent systems, while offering comparable thermal and acoustic performance. The firm also reports that its panels use around 90% less water and 40% less electricity than polystyrene alternatives.
Commercial traction includes two large offtake agreements worth a combined £338 million with UK and European contractors, signalling demand from established builders seeking lower-carbon alternatives.
Who are the investors?
The round is led by Clean Growth Fund, a climate-focused investor, with participation from the British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund via The FSE Group, early-stage investor Green Angel Ventures, and backing through Innovate UK’s investor partnership programme. The funding is earmarked to scale production capacity and to establish a replicable manufacturing model across priority markets, supporting integration with contractor and manufacturing partners.
In the announcement, Susannah McClintock, Investment Partner at Clean Growth Fund, said:
Mykor addresses one of construction's most pressing challenges: reducing embodied carbon without adding cost or complexity. Their solution integrates seamlessly into existing building practices and is cost-competitive with conventional materials — delivering meaningful carbon savings without adding cost. We're delighted to support this exceptional team as they scale commercially.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Olivia Page, Co-founder & CEO at Mykor, said:
We’ve built Mykor around the idea that decarbonising construction cannot come at the expense of cost, performance or practicality. The challenge has never just been inventing a biomaterial — it’s been manufacturing these systems at industrial scale and integrating them into real construction supply chains. This funding allows us to scale that model further alongside major contractors and manufacturing partners globally. We’re very pleased to be working with investors who understand both the urgency of the problem and the scale of the opportunity ahead.
Page’s framing emphasises operationalising a lab-developed material at industrial scale and embedding it into existing supply chains rather than asking builders to change specification practices.
The bigger picture
The Mykor deal highlights a growing market for low-carbon building materials and reflects rising interest from biotech investors in applied, industrial uses of biology. As building regulations in the UK and EU tighten, product-level carbon savings and ease of integration will become critical to adoption. If Mykor’s manufacturing model proves replicable, it could lower a practical barrier preventing wider use of biomaterials in mainstream construction.
For UK and European policymakers and investors, the story underlines how regulation, procurement and capital can align to create commercial routes for climate-oriented innovation in construction.
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