Welcome to the Mycopreneur Newsletter, your one stop shop for ear to the ground reporting on the global mushroom innovation space. At the bottom of this newsletter you’ll find an invitation to today’s Mycopreneur Incubator with Spore Daddy.

Yesterday, the global think tank RAND corporation released their initial report from their research on psychedelic use among the U.S. adult population in 2025

Key findings as they relate to mushrooms:

Psilocybin was the most used psychedelic substance, with approximately 11 million U.S. adults using it in the past year.

Approximately 10 million U.S. adults microdosed psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA in the past year.

Among U.S. adults who used psilocybin in the past year, 69 percent microdosed at least once.

The aggregated number of days that U.S. adults used psilocybin in the past year exceeded 200 million, and nearly half of these days involved microdosing.

You can read my full commentary on these trends on LinkedIn here if you feel so inclined, but for now I’ll just point out that psilocybin mushrooms have been trending massively upwards for a number of years to anyone paying attention because A) They’re highly effective at getting to the core of individual and community psychospiritual issues in a time when many people need help with those kinds of things, B) Knowledge on how to cultivate them and best practices for connecting with mushrooms are in the public domain and accessible on a shoestring budget, and C) Community hubs like the Mycopreneur Incubator and many international festivals and educational communities are helping accelerate access to mushroom education and resources.

In other fungi news, Congratulations to longtime Mycopreneur sponsor and collaborator Real Mushrooms on their acquisition of Mushroom Science.

Real Mushrooms CEO Skye Chilton commented on the acquisition that "As a long-standing brand in the industry, they were doing it right, leading with education and selling a high-quality product. I’m excited to be able to bring Mushroom Science into the Real Mushrooms family. It is a great honour and their customers will not be let down.”

Skye also wrote a great piece for Nutraceutical Business Review recently titled “Building Consumer Trust With Accurate Fungal Labeling” that emphasizes the need for clear distinctions on fungi product labeling between which part of the fungal organism is used in the product; using pictures of mushrooms on the labeling and language referring to mushrooms for a product made from mycelium and grain is a disservice to the entire category according to Chilton, which is a conversation that has been heating up over the past few years with growing public awareness that a number of supplement companies purported to be producing mushroom supplements are in fact using mycelium mixed with grain in place of the actual ‘fruiting body’ that consumers think of when the term ‘mushroom’ is used.

We’ve talked about the myceliated grain vs. fruiting body and the accurate labeling issues quite a bit at the Mycopreneur Incubator, with an overwhelming majority of support in favor of more accurate product labeling across the board and more transparent research into the supposed superior efficacy of mycelium on grain - in regards to this study, it’s important to note that A) The study used an ethanolic extract from the mycelium, while using a hot-water extract for the fruiting body and B) The benefits that were measured purporting superiority in the mycelium were for immune system benefits, and not the neurocognitive benefits that people actually take Lion’s Mane mushroom supplements for, and C) This is a preclinical study, not the type of definitive hard hitting evidence that warrants shifting a market narrative.

What do you think?

Every year since 2023 I’ve made a list of mushroom companies to pay attention to for the calendar year ahead. This list is by no means exhaustive and is simply one perspective rather than a definitive ranking. There are an incredible number of innovative, impactful companies working with fungi as their main driving force in various capacities around the world, and this list is meant to celebrate that. I’ve also made an effort to include a number of international and largely under the radar mycopreneurs in the spirit of celebrating innovation and aptitude where marketing dollars and major funding are absent. I’ll be releasing this list in multiple segments over the next two weeks - are there are any companies that I’m perhaps not aware of but should be as I’m compiling this list of 26 Mushroom Companies to Watch In 2026? Let me know by replying to this email or sharing on social media with your thoughts.

NUMU is a UAE-based platform and initiative focused on designing, developing, and producing mycelium-based materials for architecture, interior design, and product applications.

The company bridges the gap between design and science by leveraging mycelium to grow, shape, and engineer living materials into furniture, acoustic panels, and experimental designs rather than manufacturing them in a traditional sense.

The work focuses on using waste streams and biological processes, positioning the materials as sustainable, regenerative alternatives. 

Check out NUMU founder Andy Cartier on the Mycopreneur Podcast in March 2025 discussing his work in mycelium materials design prior to the companies founding in UAE:

PsiloSafe is a non-profit focused on the essential task of creating community standards for unregulated mushroom product labeling including accurate ingredient disclosure and standardized dosing. The ‘grey market’ is awash with products that are misleadingly labeled and which often don’t disclose the active ingredients at all. PsiloSafe Verification is a third-party stamp much like a ‘Certified Organic’ or ‘Fair Trade’ stamp that distinguishes the psilocybin mushroom chocolate or gummy product inside as having been laboratory tested (QR code with test results attached), and vetted for quality control. With the recent data from RAND Corporation disclosing that 11 million + Americans used psilocybin mushrooms last year, this type of community self-regulation watchdog service is set to continue growing in importance.

Tujay Mushrooms is a 100% solar-powered mushroom farm in Kilifi, Kenya, near the coastal city of Mombasa. Tujay is run by George Tujay, who made his appearance on the global stage this year as a presented at the 3rd Annual African Rising Mushroom Festival in neighboring Uganda. International attendees were so struck by his vision, diligence, resourcefulness and success in a still largely unheralded emerging niche that his profile has grown considerably over the last few months. The farm also received an influx of new equipment to go with an expanding reputation as leaders in the burgeoning African mushroom space.

Mabel is the first public facing psilocybin truffle microdosing company in France, and it is geared primarily towards helping women. The company raised over € 600,000 in pre-seed funding and served over 6,000 clients in their first year of operation in 2025. The company sources psilocybin truffles legally from The Netherlands, and offers a 5-week microdosing supply complemented by access to educational resources and community.

Hiro Diapers are a truly disposable diaper that make use of plastic eating fungi to accelerate decomposition of the materials. Over 300,000 diapers per minute are disposed of globally in landfills around the world, and much if the plastic material simply remains there and leeches into the surrounding environment and groundwater. Hiro Diapers are a great example of forward-thinking fungal innovation deployed into a massive category such as diapers, and the fact that the co-founder is none other than Tero Isokauppila of Four Sigmatic fame signals that this company has deep roots within the mushroom innovation space.

Please join us at today’s Mycopreneur Incubator, our weekly low-key, cost free hub for accelerating mushroom entrepreneurship and connecting the myco community. Details to join are below:

Mycopreneur Incubator ft. Spore Daddy

Thursday, Jan 22, 2026 at 3 PM U.S. East Coast . 12 pm West Coast

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88497623801?pwd=zxZLtzd0Ku1X11Nd8Y9LakLAWlBvz5.1

Meeting ID: 884 9762 3801 Passcode: 441879

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of the Mycopreneur Newsletter, and see you at the Incubator today.

DW