Ecoroots

Ecoroots is an SME operating through two legal entities: Ecoroots Limited (UK) and Ecoroots Ireland Limited (IE). 

Founded by Lavanya Bhandari, with a background in food science and chemistry, Ecoroots is pioneering sustainable, high-performance packaging materials made from mycelium—the root structure of mushrooms. By integrating biology, digital technology, and circular production systems, we transform agricultural and industrial waste into fully compostable packaging designed to replace plastic and polystyrene in fragile goods sectors such as cosmetics, alcoholic beverages and pharmaceuticals.

Ecoroots Ireland Ltd, based in Cork, is our EU manufacturing and R&D hub and serves as the lead applicant for EU-funded programs. It is wholly owned by Ecoroots UK, a founder-led business with no controlling interest from large corporates or institutions. As a group, we meet the EU SME criteria and operate as a pre-revenue, innovation-led company.

Our innovation model combines material science, machine learning, and sustainable design to deliver packaging that is circular by nature and scalable by design. We operate across three key verticals:

 1) B2B packaging sales for premium, fragile goods,

 2) Continuous R&D to stay at the forefront of innovation and patent our development

 3) The integration of technology and automation into our manufacturing procedures. This platform uses data science and predictive modelling to optimise growth conditions and material properties, enabling high-quality, repeatable production enabling scale through a technology licensing model 

Ecoroots has raised £280K in pre-seed funding, secured €65K in Irish government grants, and is actively engaged in long-term research collaborations with institutions such as University College Cork (UCC) and Trinity College Dublin’s AMBER Centre to develop novel materials and file patents.

We have built a fully operational pilot facility in Cork, where we have validated our proprietary mycelium-based packaging and conducted successful pilots with Irish brands. We have also developed a digital MVP linked to sensors and manufacturing workflows, laying the foundation for full-scale digital integration. A strong commercial pipeline has been established, and we are now coordinating pre-orders for launch.

We are currently raising a €1.8M Seed round to expand operations in Ireland, grow our team, publish patents, and drive commercial revenue through both product sales and licensing partnerships across Europe.