Lisbon, Sept. 14, 2026 (Lusa) - Portuguese start-up, Nãm Fungi Factory, has invested €1 million in its new mushroom factory in Odivelas, in the Lisbon region, enabling it to increase production capacity to 150 tonnes per year – ten times the previous output.
The new facility, the Nãm Fungi Factory, represents a total investment of €1 million and will enable the company to produce 150 tonnes of mushrooms per year, according to Nãm's founder, Natan Jacquemin.
The founder of the start-up was speaking to journalists at the opening of the Nãm Fungi Factory – a production facility run by the Nabeiro-Delta Cafés Group and Nãm that transforms coffee grounds into mushrooms – which took place on Monday in Odivelas, Lisbon.
The CEO of the Nabeiro-Delta Cafés Group, Rui Miguel Nabeiro, told journalists that this capacity represents an increase of around tenfold compared to previous production levels.
The strategy now focuses on achieving scale and accelerating business growth, primarily by strengthening the capacity to serve retail customers.
«Our aim is to gain scale and, particularly at this stage, to accelerate the pace of the business's growth,» said Rui Miguel Nabeiro, adding that profitability remains an essential prerequisite for the project.
«There can be no environmental sustainability without economic sustainability, because projects fail otherwise,» he emphasised.
The new factory, covering an area of 2,000 square metres, has been designed to produce around 150 tonnes of fresh mushrooms per year, compared with the approximately 48 tonnes previously produced, enabling the reuse of around 150 tonnes of coffee grounds per year.
It is expected to create 20 direct jobs.
The project was conceived seven years ago and is based on transforming coffee grounds into mushrooms, following a circular economy model.
The new facility runs entirely on solar energy for its own consumption and enables the reuse and recirculation of around 80% of the water used in the production process.
For Nabeiro, the project represents an opportunity to transform a waste product from the coffee business into a by-product with economic value, combining growth, innovation and sustainability.
According to the CEO, the grounds from Delta's vending operations are particularly well-suited to the process as they are cleaner and help to speed up production.
As such, international expansion is not, at this stage, the main priority.
«Our ambition today is very much focused on growing in Portugal,» stated Nabeiro, pointing to the possibility of setting up similar units or ‘hubs' in other Portuguese cities.
The company currently has a small vending operation in Spain, so a future international expansion of the project is not ruled out, but will depend on the growth of the operations that supply the coffee grounds.
On the Nãm side, Natan Jacquemin revealed that the company is already profitable and intends to strengthen its presence in the retail sector, following an initial phase of heavy investment in the catering sector, particularly in Lisbon, Cascais and Setúbal.
«We also want to focus heavily on the retail sector to raise brand awareness amongst everyone,» he said.
Nãm is part of Delta Ventures, the Nabeiro Group's start-up accelerator and incubator, established in 2020.
According to Rui Miguel Nabeiro, Nãm is expected to exceed €1 million in turnover this year, whilst Delta has already surpassed €700 million for the first time.
The new Nãm Fungi Factory aims to demonstrate that it is possible to produce food on a large scale within cities, making use of local resources and reducing the environmental impact associated with food production.
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