Private equity firm Meaningful Partners LLC is making a strategic growth investment in M2 Ingredients, and its Om Mushroom Superfood brand, a vertically integrated supplier of certified organic mushroom powders. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

The capital will help accelerate the distribution and marketing of M2’s consumer products brand Om Mushroom Superfood, as well as scale manufacturing to meet customer demand at its new state-of-the-art growing facility in California.

Meaningful Partners led the funding round and was joined by existing investors White Road Investments and InvestEco.

“Meaningful Partners is keenly aligned with our purpose driven company. M2 Ingredients/Om Mushroom strives to harness the amazing power of mushrooms for healthier lives,” said Sandra Carter, PhD, founder and CEO of the company.

“Meaningful’s network, capital support, and strategic vision in conjunction with our current investors and team will position M2 Ingredients to lead the functional mushroom industry in science,” she added, “and scale as an ingredient supplier and to continue to produce high quality, highly efficacious and innovative products through Om Mushroom Superfood. Our company is built on the expertise and passion of our team who have pioneered the functional mushroom industry and we are proud to have Meaningful Partners support our team and mission.”

M2 Ingredients is a vertically integrated nutraceuticals platform, leveraging 100% organic whole food functional mushrooms through its B2B platform and its in-house superfood supplement brand, Om.

The company claims to operate the largest organic functional mushroom growing facility in North America, growing 10 species including Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, Turkey Tail, and Cordyceps, with seven patented strains. The company has built a new 155,00 square foot growing facility in Vista, CA, to open in Q1 2024, which will significantly increase growing capacity to satisfy its increasing customer demand.

Om uses M2’s high quality mushrooms to deliver innovative and clinically-proven supplements, powders, gummies, drink mixes, and protein powders across the natural, direct-to-consumer and e-commerce channels. This new investment will support the company’s execution of its strategic vision, including the strengthening of its leading market position across existing channels as well as expanding distribution to reach new customers.

“At Meaningful Partners, we invest in companies at the intersection of ‘Purpose and Profit’ so could not be more excited to partner with Sandra, her high performing management team and the existing investor group to help execute on the Company’s next stage of growth,” said Jake Capps, co-founder and managing partner of Meaningful Partners. “

“M2 has been at the forefront of providing the highest quality and clinically-backed functional mushrooms for over a decade,” he added, “and with their new, state-of-the-art growing facility will be well positioned to support existing and new customer demand in a category that grew over 50% last year.”

Additionally, he added, the Company’s Om brand has “the highest growth of any other scaled brand in the functional mushroom category with a massive opportunity to further increase distribution across every channel of trade to reach customers that are increasingly seeking to embrace natural and clinically-backed superfood products to help improve whole body health outcomes.”

Blair Kellison, former CEO Traditional Medicinals and part of the Meaningful Partner’s Expert Community, will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of M2. He brings more than 30 years of experience in the natural and better-for-you food, beverage and supplement space.