Fortune recently went deep on IndieBio’s mushroom “leather” maker MycoWorks, in the article “Mushroom ‘leather’ realistic enough for $4,200 Hermès handbags has raised over $187 million from investors like Natalie Portman, John Legend, and GM”. 

MycoWorks (IndieBio 03) engineers mycelium mushrooms to develop durable, non-animal materials that compare to the look, feel, and even smell of the finest animal leathers. In addition to its $187M venture funding, MycoWorks recently broke ground on a facility in South Carolina to ramp up production of the company’s Reishi Fine Mycelium leather-like material. High-fashion client Hermès has sourced MycoWorks’ mycelium material for luxury handbags while GM has expressed plans to use Fine Mycelium for the upholstery in its electric vehicles, the article noted.

Material science Ph.D. Matt Scullin, who joined as MycoWorks’ CEO in 2017, told Fortune: “Brands are making very significant changes to address what is really a growing demographic of people who want to buy sustainable products that have provenance and traceability and a lower carbon footprint, lower water use—and mycelium does all of those things.”