Mykor lands £4M to scale waste-based construction materials

Mykor, a UK biotechnology company developing low-carbon construction materials from industrial and agricultural waste, has secured £4 million in funding to accelerate the scale-up of its industrial biofabrication technologies. The round was led by Clean Growth Fund, with 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.

The construction sector remains a major contributor to global emissions, with growing pressure on developers and contractors to reduce both embodied and operational carbon in buildings. At the same time, many traditional insulation and construction materials remain carbon-intensive, non-renewable, and difficult to recycle.

Founded in 2021, Mykor develops construction systems using engineered mycelium, green chemistry, and industrial manufacturing processes to create low-carbon alternatives to conventional building materials. The company focuses on converting agricultural and industrial waste streams into scalable construction products designed to meet mainstream fire safety, acoustic, and performance requirements.

Rather than operating solely as a materials manufacturer, Mykor positions itself as a technology and process platform, enabling contractors and manufacturers to integrate biomaterials into existing production lines and construction systems.

Its first commercial product, MykoSIP, is a prefabricated partition wall system designed to reduce embodied carbon while maintaining comparable thermal and acoustic performance to conventional alternatives. According to the company, the panels also use significantly less water and electricity during production compared to polystyrene-based systems.

According to Olivia Page, the company was built around the idea that lower-carbon construction materials must remain commercially viable and practical for large-scale adoption.

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 an industrial scale and integrating them into real construction supply chains.

The funding comes as tightening building regulations across the UK and Europe increase demand for lower-carbon construction materials and more energy-efficient building systems.

Mykor is already working on active construction projects and has signed large offtake agreements with contractors across the UK and Europe, while the new funding will support production scale-up and expansion into additional markets.