Kernel Mycofoods

About Kernel Mycofoods

Originally established as Kernel Mycofoods in 2019 and rebranded to Eternal in January 2022, the company operates as a biotechnology innovation platform with roots in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and offices in Houston, London, and Spain. The business emerged as a spin-out from Enye Tech, a multidisciplinary agency led by Eternal's CEO, Horacio Acerbo. Eternal's core mission is to develop sustainable, cruelty-free protein at affordable costs, with a broader ambition to tackle significant global challenges using advanced technology.

The company's primary business involves the production and supply of mycoprotein, a fungi-based food ingredient, to other companies. Eternal employs precision fermentation of the *Fusarium venenatum* fungus strain, which has received prior regulatory approval, to create its proprietary ingredient, named Mycofood. This business-to-business model targets consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, providing them with a versatile ingredient for products like plant-based burgers and crackers. The key value proposition is a cost-effective, sustainable protein source intended to be competitive with traditional animal proteins, particularly in emerging markets.

Eternal enhances its fermentation process through the integration of artificial intelligence and computer vision. This technological layer allows the company to monitor the process at a microscopic level and adjust variables to modify the protein's final characteristics, such as texture. The resulting Mycofood is a complete food ingredient, containing protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It boasts a neutral taste, enabling a wide variety of applications, and has a protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) higher than that of beef or soy. In late 2021, the company announced it had secured over $15 million in an institutional funding round led by Union Group Ventures to scale up production. This investment supports plans to build new facilities with a target capacity of over 50,000 tonnes per year. The firm has also gained recognition by winning Phase 1 of the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge and being a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion competition.