The Future is Fungi at ChangeNOW 2025

A few weeks back, our founder Susanne Gløersen represented The Future is Fungi Award at ChangeNOW in Paris, the world’s largest sustainability conference. The event continues to be a strong platform for showcasing climate solutions — and this year, fungi-based innovation had a noticeably larger presence.

Several startups in our network were featured, including Novobiom, our fellow Future is Fungi awardee, with Jean-Michel Scheuren and Aurelie Esperandieu. Mycocycle, Inc. also participated, with Joanne Rodriguez contributing to a panel on PFAS – an important topic that deserves much more visibility in environmental discussions.

Other notable contributions came from MycoFarming®, Nazanin Saeidi and her team, who are developing fungi-based materials, and Thibaut Fournel of Koz Surfboards, who presented a surfboard made from mycelium – a creative and tangible application of bio-based innovation. We also heard that MYCEEN was present.

It was encouraging to see so many female founders represented in the fungi space, a sign of meaningful progress in the field.

The ecosystem around fungi innovation is evolving quickly. If this year is any indication, we expect even more startups to join the conversation next year.