2024 is the year of the mushroom. The explosive popularity of all things fungi can be seen in virtually every news cycle, across popular culture, and mushrooming out from the underground all along Main Street USA and beyond. Mushrooms have emerged as an invaluable lifeline in this time of planetary crisis. They offer solutions to so many different challenges on a personal and collective level, and the world is waking up to this largely untapped potential. And beyond practical applications, they’re just plain awesome, enigmatic, and curiosity-provoking.
We’ve barely begun to see the real impact of fungi as a collaborative resource for humanity; we are still very, very early in the process of mycopreneurism taking over the world. This list is mainly geared towards fungi startup companies that have multiple people involved in running them. There are so many impactful mycopreneurs currently operating around the world, and this list won’t do justice to that fact.
For my money, anyone currently forming a collaborative relationship with mushrooms to actively solve problems and uplift their community is a top-flight mycopreneur that deserves all the respect in the world. Here are 24 mushroom companies to look out for in 2024.
- Mycroboost This functional mushroom company has been building steam over the last two years, with a range of product offerings from mushroom coffee to soft gel capsules to gummies to surprisingly comfortable clothing. I have a lot of attire from myco brands and Mycroboost threads definitely take the cake by a mile in terms of comfort and swag.
2. Cultivating Wisdom This mushroom and lifestyle brand burst onto the scene with authority in 2023 and made inroads into the highest levels of the emerging industry. Their target market is for adults 55 and above and the Latin American market, stepping up to accommodate two different largely underserved demographics. 2024 is looking to be the year that Cultivating Wisdom expands their influence internationally as they continue to help reach a demographic that is currently largely overlooked and underserved in the psychedelic space.
3. Everyday Dose – This mushroom coffee purveyor has established themselves as one of the global leaders in the mushroom coffee space. Their Mushroom Matcha may in fact be the real champion here, as I haven’t seen another product as such on the market currently. The company expanded to a massive warehouse space in Austin in early 2023 and is expanding globally and rapidly at this time.
4. Los Malos Eloteros This California-based substrate provider is pioneering the use of corn as a substrate for growing mushrooms. The mycopreneurs behind this venture bring over a decade of commercial agricultural experience to the table. Corn plays an integral role in the society of many indigenous cultures that have historically stewarded over mushroom knowledge and wisdom, and so it’s use as a food source for various entheogenic fungi checks out on a meta level as well.
5. Shroomtown – There aren’t many journalists or media platforms focused predominantly on psilocybin mushrooms and mycopreneurial activities, and this platform is founded by two world-class multimedia producers. Shroomtown has consistently put out thought-provoking, original and compelling mushroom related content, notably including on the ground reporting about unlicensed brick and mortar stores in Canada selling psilocybin mushrooms and other entheogens.
6. Nuvedo – Nuvedo is at the vanguard of the burgeoning mushroom revolution in India. They recently coordinated the first mushroom festival in India, which I participated in and covered for High Times. They had a huge 2023 and are actively establishing themselves as the #1 functional mushroom company in India with diligent strategy and execution. In a country with 1.5 billion people that has been largely mycophobic in recent times, Nuvedo is driving the mushroom revolution with style and panache in their homeland.
7. KÄÄPÄ – This Finnish company is at the forefront of the emerging mushroom industry in Europe. They recently closed a $2.7 million Series A round and maintain the largest Chaga cultivation network on the planet. KÄÄPÄ is extremely well-positioned to supply Direct-to-Consumer mushroom brands across Europe as well, as they already provide the mushrooms for over 110 supplement brands in the region while also maintaining their own product line and a number of other mycopreneurial endeavors, including a forestry sciences division.
8. Mycostories – Mycostories has established itself as a leading media platform in the global mushroom industry. They’ve covered numerous cutting edge mycopreneurial startups around the planet over the last year, featuring on the ground reporting and video content with fungi innovators in places like Japan, South Korea, and Bali among others. Look for more Latin American myco documentation from them in addition to their global coverage of the industry in 2024. They’ve also curated a number of different maps providing a detailed overview of various aspects of the myco space, including one focused on funding sources and another on academic research into mushroom science.
9. Real Mushrooms – This functional mushroom powerhouse company is the pre-eminent purveyor of functional mushrooms extracts in the North American market and is looking to expand their offerings with an increased focus on functional mushroom supplements for pets in 2024. They supply many of the leading mushroom supplement brands in North America and bring more combined years of commercial mushroom cultivation experience to the industry than virtually any other outfit currently operating.
10. North Spore – North Spore is another heavy hitter in the multi-billion dollar North American functional mushroom market. Established in 2014, they’ve bootstrapped their way from a startup selling fresh mushrooms to local farmers markets into a multimillion dollar company with over 70 people on staff. They continue to innovate and introduce new techniques and technology to the mushroom space, such as their transportable cloning kit for mushroom foragers that is soon to be released.
11. Oakland Hyphae – Oakland Hyphae has set the bar for analytical mushroom testing, events, political activism, journalism, and many other domains in the emerging psilocybin mushroom space. The combination of scientific acumen, grassroots campaigning and social advocacy solidify Oakland Hyphae as a dominant force in the psychedelic and mushroom ecosystem. Look for them to make their international debut in Fall 2024 with their forthcoming first event in Jamaica.
12. Mycogeeky – Mycogeeky is a renowned mycology education resource that often hosts reputable mushroom cultivators and mycopreneurs. They’ve done a remarkable job of curating and platforming a constellation of different established geneticists, breeders, cultivators and satirists over the last few years and will continue to make wavy caps over the next year.
13. Mycotrophic – This veteran-owned myco outfit has consolidated a robust community of mushroom cultivators and advocates through their 23,000 subscriber plus YouTube channel and Patreon community, and is making big moves into the mycomedia and psychedelic conference sphere in 2024. Look for Mycotrophic at the PsyCon event in Las Vegas along myself and a number of others in May 2024.
14. Cooperativa Simbioses – This Mexico City-based group is deeply connected to the ancestral use of fungi by various indigenous cultures in the region while also bringing an academic and scientific lens to the work they do. They run educational events, produce mushroom tinctures, and host mushroom forays in different parts of central and southern Mexico.
15. Fruiting Bodies – Fruiting Bodies is a US-based mushroom supplement company with extraction wizard Roger Holden at the helm. The Co-founders of this company actually first connected after Roger was featured on Mycopreneur Podcast, and they’ve been firing on all cylinders ever since then. Their cordyceps mushroom chocolate is definitely worth a try.
16. Oklahoma Fungi – Oklahoma Fungi had a big year in 2023 and is poised to further elevate their game on the national level in 2024. They hosted the first Oklahoma Mushroom Festival in September 2023 and have recently rolled out a line of functional mushroom gummies as well. Their devotion to myco education and advocacy haver garnered high profile press such as a recent television appearance on @news9 to talk about the medicinal benefit of various mushrooms.
17. Cyber Mushroom – This London-based myco technology startup is the brainchild of Batuhan Bintas, a Turkish technologist, polyglot, and psychonaut. Batu developed Cyber Mushroom after seeing the potential for such a product during one of his mushroom experiences. He has since showcased the immersive VR mushroom trip to people across Europe and is in the process of leveling up the product with real-time sensory feedback and AI algorithmic modeling to ultimately create an archive where people can store and share insights and experiences from their mushroom trips with each other.
18. Darren Le Baron – This UK-based mushroom educator and advocate has made a global impact with his world famous Shroomshop series. From England to the United States to Guatemala and a number of other countries around the world, Darren has been spreading the spores far and wide by teaching people of different nationalities and backgrounds how to cultivate and connect with mushrooms. 2024 is the year that he levels up his offerings in Jamaica, bringing him back home to the Caribbean islands where he began his life. The newest offering is called Ancestral Alchemy and runs from May 7 – 13th 2024 in Jamaica.
19. Denver Spore Company – Denver Spore Company is a one stop shop for mushroom cultivation supplies and materials, and is at ground zero of the growing mushroom industry in the United States. They had a big showing at the 12,000 person Psychedelic Science conference in Denver in 2023, and are set to make an even bigger impact in 2024. Definitely keep tabs on this company.
20. Acacea Lewis – Acacia Lewis has become a major presence internationally thanks to their deep knowledge of traditional mushroom use and plant medicine alchemy more broadly. Acacia is the founder of the Divine Master Alchemy school and has been working to safely guide deeper personal exploration with entheogenic fungi and other master plant teachers. They have lectured at major conferences and universities in multiple countries over the last few years and are expanding upon that success in 2024 with upcoming educational and immersive mushroom workshops in Jamaica and across the U.S. this year.
21. Tryptomics – This Colorado-based mushroom testing outfit does ‘elevated natural product research’ and his increasingly garnering traction for their innovative approach to educating the myco community about the importance of analytical testing of psychoactive mushrooms. They recently conducted an analytical test of multiple infamous ‘trap chocolate’ brands (mass underground / dubious quality chocolate) and shared the tests publicly, which returned less than desirable results for the brands in question.
22. Baystaters – This Massachusetts-based political advocacy group has helped decriminalize mushrooms in a half dozen cities across the United States, and is posing a formidable threat to corporate interests trying to lay the foundation for restricted access models to psilocybin mushrooms in their home state. They have over 4,000 volunteers and host numerous education and community-oriented events, and are positioned to build upon their considerable national influence in 2024.
23. Psilocybin SF – This platform and community empowers the safe exploration of psilocybin mushrooms through their educational seminars and online conferences they’ve been hosting over the last few years. They recently hosted the 500 person plus Microdosing Mushrooms conference and have expanded their global influence through a recent published article in Psychedelics Today by Co-Founder Alexandra Plesner.
24. Umbo – This Colorado-based functional mushroom company is their brainchild of former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer, UFC Hall of Fame Rashad Evans, and veteran plant medicine advocate and entrepreneur Del Jolly. Their combined passion for nutrition, healthy living and commitment to quality buttresses the Umbo functional mushroom products they’ve rolled out, and their combined depth and breadth of professional and entrepreneurial experience may offer a heightened ability to execute strategy and succeed in the supplement market.
With only 24 spots available, there is no question that this list is missing a lot of impactful mycopreneurs. I hope that this compilation introduced you to a few new brands and put some of the forthcoming developments you might not know about coming from established companies onto your radar for the first time.
May 2024 indeed be the year of the mushroom!
