Marta's Shimejito Farm

Sustainable and decentralized mushroom production in Cascais.

Investment overview

Impact category

Agrifood Systems

Investment type

Loan

Yearly interest

4.7

Term

months

Risk level

B-

Shimejito is an agritech, social impact startup that wants to be the global solution for local agriculture. The company developed a proprietary technology for the sustainable production of mushrooms in indoor urban farms.

With Shimejito, anyone can become a mushroom producer by investing 50.000€ to build an urban farm. The farm itself is a 70m2 greenhouse with the capacity to grow 6 tons of mushrooms every year, no seasonality and quality guaranteed. The model is based on a proprietary technology developed by Shimejito (which includes the economic model, decentralized production, and software parameters to control the IoT). Based on the concept of circular economy, the company guarantees zero industrial waste since the substrate used for the production of mushrooms is also a product, sold to organic farming practitioners.

The client (or producer) buys agriculture as a service. In other words, the hardware, software, business plan, production, logistics, and sales are all managed by Shimejito, which guarantees the purchase of the whole production.

The funds raised through this campaign will be used to complement the investment required to build Marta’s farm, in Cascais, which includes the incorporation of the company, legal advice, training, adaptation of farm spaces, purchase of

What is the impact?

Direct:

Creation of two new jobs at Marta's Shimejito Farm.
Efficient use of water: the control recurring to Shimejito's proprietary technology allows savings of up to 80% in water compared to traditional production.
Reduction of CO2 emissions, when compared to traditional production, as the carbon from agroforestry waste is stored in the soil.
Zero-waste production through the use of organic material and the non-use of disposable plastic throughout the production.
Sustainable agriculture production: after harvest, the mushrooms are purchased in full by Shimejito, which oversees their distribution. In turn, the mycelium is transformed into new soil additive

Indirect:

Promotion of circular economy: at the Bio Factory, Shimejito produces mushroom substrate from sawdust, which is then sold to the farms. Later, it is collected again to be sold in the organic farming market.
Promotion of local economic development through the creation of local partnerships with producers, distributors, and clients, who aligned with the purpose of transforming petrochemical into organic production, while also promoting the creation of a community around the topic.

Impact indicators
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jobs

created by our projects

hectars

of sustainable water and land management

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
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About the Promoter

About

CATEGORIÓDROMO - UNIPESSOAL LDA

Shimejito is an agritech company with social impact based in Fundão (elected Number 1 Smart City in Portugal in 2019), accelerated by BGI/MIT and supported under the program Startup Visa,

The company's mission is to solve global problems through local action, by providing consumers with fresh and high-quality products, and by enabling its clients (the farm owners), such as Marta, to produce mushrooms in a sustainable and decentralized manner.

CATEGORIÓDROMO – Unipessoal Lda is the project promoter, a company created by Marta Félix in order to build and operate her own farm in Cascais.

Marta is from Alentejo but lives in Cascais. Passionate about innovation and sports, she has a bachelor’s in management and currently works for Genpact. She got to know Shimejito through social media and found in the project the perfect alignment with her career repositioning and autonomy to do what she dreams of, such as boosting the market for young people in Portugal.

The expansion to Cascais, with the Marta farm, joins the 40 Farms already approved under the Startup Visa program.

In 2020, Shimejito accumulated 3 European awards, including The biggest Potential Solution for the Post-Covid Period pelo ecossistema da Estónia and two EIT Food awards (EWA Final Pitch Competition e EIT Food Innovation Prizes)

Currently, the Shimejito team has 12 people.

Promoter website

shimejito.com

Business Model
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