Naturally Genius™: Mushroom Material announces new name and identity

Naturally Genius™ (formerly Mushroom Material) unveils new brand identity as the company scales its mycelium-based alternative to expanded polystyrene ahead of a Series A raise

Mushroom Material, the New Zealand-founded materials technology company replacing expanded polystyrene (EPS) with mycelium-based packaging, has rebranded to Naturally Genius™.

The name change reflects the company's evolution from early-stage startup to a commercially ready materials business with global ambitions, rather than any change of ownership, direction, or product. Naturally Genius™ remains the same team, the same technology, and the same mission that has taken the company through two oversubscribed funding rounds and into an active Series A raise.

Founder and CEO Shaun Seaman said the new name gives credit where it belongs.

‍"The genius in this story isn't ours. Mycelium already knew how to do something remarkable: bind organic material into a structure strong enough to protect, and simple enough to return to the earth when it's done. Nature built that mechanism, not us. What we worked out was how to take it out of the ground and put it to work as protective packaging at industrial scale." said Seaman.

Seaman founded the company after watching polystyrene wash ashore on a beach in Indonesia in 2018. Rather than engineer a synthetic fix, he turned to mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, as a naturally occurring alternative already capable of the job.

The company's proprietary pellet technology allows its mycelium material to drop directly into the machinery manufacturers already use to produce polystyrene packaging, without any change to existing infrastructure. It is this scalability, rather than the material itself, that the company points to as its core commercial advantage over other mycelium packaging producers, most of which grow material directly into moulds, a slower and harder to scale process.

Naturally Genius™ is currently completing compostability certification for its home-compostable EPS alternative, with internal testing to date pointing to full breakdown in under three months.

The rebrand follows a strategic process led in partnership with Digital Dynamics, working closely with founder Gareth Poley, whose guidance has shaped the new brand direction and laid the groundwork for the company's next phase of growth.

The new brand mark features a brain containing a mushroom, a visual representation of the company's central idea: that the intelligence behind the material belongs to nature. The custom hand-drawn lettering was designed to reflect that same organic origin.

The rebrand comes at a significant moment for the company. Naturally Genius™ has secured its first commercial order, mycelium packaging for wine bottle protection. The company is backed by Wavemaker Partners, Icehouse Ventures, and SEEDS Capital, has a pilot production facility operational in Singapore, and has fielded strong inbound interest from global companies.

"Two oversubscribed funding rounds, milestones hit ahead of schedule, and now a name that finally matches what we're building. Naturally Genius™ is Mushroom Material, just ready for what's next," said Seaman.

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Naturally Genius™ (formerly Mushroom Material) is a New Zealand-founded, Singapore-expanding materials technology company commercialising mycelium-based packaging. The company has developed a proprietary pellet technology that drops directly into existing polystyrene manufacturing machinery, allowing industries to replace EPS without changing their infrastructure. Backed by Wavemaker Partners, Icehouse Ventures, and SEEDS Capital, Naturally Genius™ has completed two oversubscribed funding rounds and will soon be raising a Series A to scale global production.