Fredericton-based Chinova Bioworks, which uses mushrooms to make food preservatives and other ingredients, plans to quadruple its production capacity in response to demand from market-segments including non-alcoholic beer.

Founded in 2016 by CEO Natasha Dhayagude and COO David Brown, Chinova “upcycles” castoff mushroom stems collected from farmers into a range of natural white label food ingredients, including its flagship offering, which is a preservative called Chiber. The company has also developed a “fining agent” — a substance that reduces the bitterness and visible fogginess in drinks ranging from craft beers to juices.

Chinova’s new production targets come less than a year after the company raised a $6 million Series A funding round that brought its total capital raised to more than $12 million of equity funding and $2.5 million in non-dilutive funding. At the time, Chinova said it was planning to dramatically expand its Prince Edward Island production facility.

“Over the last year we’ve become cash positive, generating enough revenue that we’re funding this expansion entirely on our own without using any more investment capital,” Brown told trade publication AgFunderNews earlier this month. “This year we are expecting to double the volume we did last year, and last year was already a great year.

“We’re expanding into Australia and New Zealand with a distribution partner and then getting into Asia and South America. And we’ve only really scratched the surface when it comes to North America.”

Beverage-makers usually run their products through a series of several filtration processes to remove impurities that can affect their taste, as well as to improve their visual appearance. Chinova’s fining agent, MycoKleer, can replace varying amounts of the filtration process depending on the beverage in question.

The non-alcoholic beer market, meanwhile, is shaping up to be a particular area of strength for Chinova thanks to spoilage issues that brewers face when they remove alcohol and its preservative qualities from their beverages, Brown said.

He added that most major beer companies now have non-alcoholic offerings, making it a fast-growing market segment. Nationally, almost a third of consumers have already tried non-alcoholic beer, according to Halifax polling shop Narrative Research, with almost another quarter interested in trying it.

“We are working with early adopters, and a few are hoping to launch within the next two months,” said Brown. “This is a big opportunity as every big beer producer is coming out with a non-alcoholic version of its beer, so it’s a really exciting time.”

Chinova has 29 employees listed on LinkedIn. In March, CEO Dhayagude was also honoured by industry group Natural Products Canada as a life sciences Game Changer in the organization's International Women's Day report, Game Changers: Leading Companies. Powered by Women.