Maya Mushrooms UK CIC – Join the Fungi Revolution
At Maya Mushrooms UK CIC, we’re dedicated to making mushroom cultivation easier, more accessible, and sustainable for everyone. Whether you’re a passionate home grower, an educator, a researcher, a small business, or part of a larger enterprise, we’re making mushrooms more affordable for everyone.
To meet the growing demand for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms in the UK, we’re building a dedicated production facility in the Forest of Dean – the first of its kind in the country. This space will allow us to produce ready-to-fruit mushroom blocks, grow kits and premium cultivation materials at a scale that will lower the cost of production for businesses, making health-promoting mushrooms more accessible for everyone.
We’re committed to supporting the mushroom-growing community in every way we can. By facilitating workshops, training, and collaborations with selected partners, we want to make it easier for people to get started, improve their yields, and explore the incredible health-promoting benefits of fungi and the vital role they play in the world.
Maya Mushrooms supports businesses and individuals, providing essential resources, expertise, and high-quality materials to boost the growing UK mushroom market.
Our Objectives
At Maya Mushrooms, we aim to transform mushroom cultivation in the UK. Here’s what we’re working towards:
Affordable, High-Quality Growing Supplies: Producing industry-leading, ultra-high-yielding, ready-to-fruit mushroom blocks, kits and premium cultivation materials at scale to reduce costs for growers.
Simplifying Cultivation: We handle the labour-intensive production processes so growers can focus on business growth and cultivation.
Supporting Small and Large Growers: Providing resources for everyone, from hobbyists to commercial operations.
Strengthening the UK Mushroom Industry: Reducing reliance on expensive imports and supporting the development of local, short-chained food networks.
Encouraging Education and Collaboration: Hosting workshops and training sessions to share knowledge and support growers at all levels.
Promoting the Benefits of Fungi: Raising awareness of fungi’s role in health, food systems, and sustainability while supporting vital research.
Through these efforts, we aim to build a stronger, more connected mushroom-growing community and make high-quality cultivation more accessible for everyone.
Why We’re Fundraising
We’re running a series of fundraising campaigns to acquire specialist industrial equipment we need to fulfil our objectives.
Key equipment needed:
- 6000L Autoclave and Steam Boiler – For large-scale, efficient substrate sterilisation.
- Automated Bagging & Spawning Machines – To drastically reduce manual labour requirements, increasing our cost savings which we can pass on to our customers.
- Dedicated Cleanroom Facilities & Incubation Spaces – Ensuring repeatable, contamination-free results and high-yielding products.
As a non-profit organisation, every penny we raise directly supports sustainable mushroom cultivation, educational programmes, research initiatives, and community projects – helping to build healthier communities, ecological resilience, and sustainable economic growth powered by fungi.
Our Vision for the Growing UK Mushroom Market
Across Europe, demand for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms is rising fast, with large-scale facilities emerging to meet commercial needs. Belgium’s Eclo recently invested €4.7 million in a high-tech mushroom facility, highlighting the scale of the growing gourmet and medicinal mushroom market.
Maya Mushrooms UK CIC is building a smaller-scale, cost-efficient, and sustainable community-driven model at our Forest of Dean facility – the first of its kind in the UK.
Whilst we fully support what Eclo has achieved abroad, we believe a non-profit alternative should exist in the UK – one that reinvests in education, sustainability, and community initiatives. By keeping our operation non-profit, we ensure that growers of all sizes benefit, fostering a stronger, more resilient mushroom-growing community.
Supporting Existing Growers
Whether you’re a commercial or hobbyist mushroom grower, you can secure access to industry-leading fruiting blocks, grow kits and supplies at unbeatable prices – expand your product range, reduce your overheads, increase your efficiency and enable growth. Key benefits include:
Bulk Wholesale Supply – Reliable, no-commitment access to industry-leading, highly supplemented fruiting blocks, grow kits, sterilised grain, and substrates at market-leading rates.
White-label & Contract Manufacturing – Customised supplies under your existing brand – no changes to your product lines.
We have limited production capacity, and demand is high.
Secure your supply & lock in early-bird rates today to avoid missing out.
Additional Benefits:
- Reduce Labour & Overheads
Outsourcing production to us will significantly lower your labour and overhead costs. - Free Up Valuable Space
Eliminate your storage and incubation needs, allowing you to expand your fruiting capacity and productivity. - Customised Substrates & Testing
With our support, use your spawn or cultures to trial and refine bespoke substrate blends at scale. - Flexible Ordering, No Minimum Quantities
Order exactly what you need, precisely when you need it, improving cash flow and operational efficiency. - Reliable UK-based Supply
Avoid the high shipping costs, minimum order requirements and delays from importing. - Leadership Opportunities
Help shape the future of UK mushroom cultivation by joining our team.
Support Our Campaign
- Pre-order Supplies – Reserve your materials now at preferential early-bird pricing.
- Letter of Intent / Purchase Order – Send us a non-binding commitment to help us plan our production.
Get Supplies for Free
Join us in our Crowdfunding campaign, help us raise awareness of our cause and benefit from free fruiting blocks and supplies.
- Crowdfunding Donors can Support you Directly – Assigning their donation directly to your farm/business, you’ll receive store credit with us to spend on mushroom cultivation supplies, training, or consultancy when we’re operational – no financial risk to you.
- Link an Independent Crowdfunding Campaign – Create your own Crowdfunder campaign, offer your own incentives, such as workshops or grow kits and directly link it to ours for credit on future orders.
Fundraising Support & Collaboration: We provide personalised crowdfunding assistance making fundraising effortless. You just need to promote it via your social channels and existing network.
Have more ideas for collaboration? Get in touch, we’re flexible and how we can help and would love to hear from you.
For Questions or How to Get Involved:
Help us Spread the Word!
❤️
Do you know someone who might be interested in our campaign?
Share this with them using the buttons below. Your support is deeply appreciated.
And don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels for project updates:
Supporting Existing Suppliers
With rapid market growth and new competitors emerging, we’re here to support businesses of all types and sizes. We offer affordable, flexible supply solutions – helping you scale efficiently without high overheads or long-term commitments.
As a non-profit, we prioritise low prices over profits, ensuring supplies remain affordable while sustaining our community-driven mission.
Marketplace Integration
Our website will soon be transformed into a national mushroom-focused marketplace directly supporting collaborating businesses. We can list your product lines and direct customers straight to your website. By promoting your products and services, we boost your visibility, increase sales opportunities, and help you maintain full control over pricing and customer relationships.
Our primary focus will be B2B and wholesale supply to our partnered businesses. By connecting buyers directly with suppliers, we’re strengthening the industry, making it easier for businesses to scale while keeping costs low.
Flexible Services to Support Your Business
Bulk Wholesale Supply – Reliable, no-commitment access to industry-leading, highly supplemented fruiting blocks, grow kits, sterilised grain, and substrates at market-leading rates.
White-label & Contract Manufacturing – Customised supplies under your existing brand – no changes to your product lines.
Additional Services:
- Third-Party Logistics (3PL) – Storage, packing, and dispatch solutions, freeing you to focus on growing your business.
- Overflow Production Support – Flexible capacity to meet peak-season demands or temporary production gaps, without long-term commitments.
We have limited production capacity, and demand is high.
Secure your supply & lock in early-bird rates today to avoid missing out.
How You Can Help:
- Pre-order Supplies – Reserve your materials now at preferential early-bird pricing.
- Letter of Intent / Purchase Order – Send us a non-binding commitment to help us plan our production.
- Share Your Expertise – Contribute insights or feedback, and we’ll actively support your business.
- Promote the Campaign – Encourage your audience to back us; we’ll reciprocate by promoting your business.
Do you have additional collaboration ideas? Let us know – we’d love to hear from you.
For Questions or How to Get Involved:
Share, Grow, Heal – A Simple Act for Meaningful Change
By sharing our mission on your social media channels, you’re helping more people experience the healing power of mushrooms, supporting better health, stronger communities, and a more connected future for all. Every share spreads awareness of how mushrooms can nourish the body, enhance cognition, boost energy, and promote overall wellbeing.
Together, we’re strengthening local food systems and fostering a more sustainable world.
Expressing our Gratitude
As a heartfelt thank you, we’ll send you and a friend/family member a voucher for a limited-edition, personalised grow-at-home kit, once we’ve started production. Experience the transformative power of fungi first-hand.
Your kit will serve as a reminder of the power of nature to heal, nourish, and bring people together.
Choose from a beautiful array of healing mushrooms:
- Shiitake – Supporting immunity, cardiovascular health, and overall vitality.
- Pink Oyster – Beaufully deep colour, rich in antioxidants and known for its vibrant, uplifting energy.
- Blue Oyster – A nutritious, sustainable source of protein and beneficial compounds.
- Lion’s Mane – Enhances cognitive function, memory, and focus.
- Reishi – Revered for centuries for its adaptogenic, stress-reducing, and longevity-boosting properties.
- Pioppino – for its deep umami flavour and immune-supporting benefits.
What you have to do
Step 1: Share this page on your social media channels using the buttons above. This helps us increase awareness of our cause.
Step 2: Enter your details using our simple online form below.
Step 3: Once we’re fully operational later in the year, we’ll send both you and a friend a gift card to redeem a free grow-at-home mushroom kit.
By sharing, you’re not just helping us grow, you’re supporting our mission – helping to build a future where mushrooms play a central role in nutrition, healing, and community wellbeing. Thank you ❤️
Supporting Community Farms, Schools & Organisations
If you’re part of a community farm, school, or local organisation, collaborating with Maya Mushrooms UK CIC can help your community expand into the growing mushroom market – with zero risk or upfront costs.
- Selling Fresh Mushrooms – Easily add gourmet and medicinal mushrooms to your farm shop, CSA boxes, or community projects. Increasing revenues.
- Offer Mushroom Grow Kits – Take advantage of our wholesale options on mushroom grow kits, have them customised to your requirements.
- Offer Engaging Workshops – Run mushroom cultivation workshops or experience days, inspiring your community and promoting sustainability.
We have limited production capacity, and demand is high.
Secure your supply & lock in early-bird rates today to avoid missing out.
How You Benefit:
- Crowdfunding Donors can Support you Directly – Assigning their donation to your farm you receive store credit with us to spend on mushroom cultivation supplies, training, or consultancy – no financial risk to you.
- Grow in Containers or Existing Buildings – We can help you set up a mushroom fruiting chamber in a shipping container or existing space on your farm.
- Easy Fundraising Support – Use our dedicated campaign tracking tools or launch your own linked crowdfunding campaign; we’ll guide you at every step.
Have more ideas for collaboration? We’re always open to suggestions and keen to explore new partnerships.
For Questions or How to Get Involved:
Environmental Impact & Sustainability
Maya Mushrooms UK CIC is significantly reducing the UK’s reliance on imported cultivation supplies, cutting transport emissions, and lowering costs for growers. By using industrial autoclaves and automated systems, we minimise waste, enhance energy efficiency, and optimise production.
Mushrooms naturally recycle organic waste, regenerate soil health, and capture carbon. We support regenerative agriculture by repurposing agricultural by-products into sustainable growing medium, promoting circular economy practices. Excess revenues directly fund sustainability-focused education, research, and community initiatives, empowering people to harness fungi for environmental and social good.
Get Involved
Collaboration is essential to achieving our sustainability goals. We invite growers, researchers, environmentalists, and innovators to share their expertise and actively participate in shaping sustainable mushroom cultivation. Join us and help create lasting, positive impact.
Future Goals
We are committed to enhancing our environmental impact through continuous innovation. Our long-term objectives include:
Conservation of Native UK Mushroom Species
Supporting biodiversity through research, cultivation, and educational projects.
Mycoremediation Research
Exploring fungi’s potential to restore contaminated soils and ecosystems.
Organic Certification
Attaining official organic status for the highest sustainability standards.
Agricultural By-product Utilisation
Transforming farm waste into sustainable cultivation materials.
Carbon Neutrality
Implementing energy-efficient processes and carbon offset programmes.
Closed-Loop Waste Systems
Developing composting solutions for spent substrates.
Regenerative Agroforestry
Partnering to integrate fungi into rewilding and woodland restoration.
Low-Waste Packaging
Transitioning to biodegradable, recyclable, or reusable packaging.
Water Conservation
Incorporating rainwater harvesting and efficient water management.
Public Fungal Education
Expanding awareness about fungi’s role in ecosystem resilience and climate mitigation.
3D Model & Facility Floorplans
Our purpose-built facility is ready to become the UK’s premier source of high-quality substrates, sterile grain, and ready-to-fruit mushroom blocks.
- 8,000 sq. ft Dedicated Production Space: Designed specifically for sterilisation, incubation, and large-scale mushroom cultivation processes.
- Fully Equipped Infrastructure: Optimised utilities, ventilation, and workflow already in place – minimal modifications required.
- Strategic Location (Forest of Dean): Ideal for fast, cost-effective distribution nationwide.
- Scalable Footprint: Space available for future expansion without relocation.
- Immediate Readiness: With infrastructure complete, equipment procurement can begin immediately, enabling rapid production start-up upon delivery.
With your support, we can turn this space into a high-capacity, fully automated facility that makes sustainable, UK-grown mushroom cultivation materials widely accessible to all.
Core Equipment We Need
Below are photos of the essential equipment we’re fundraising for.
Visit our dedicated Equipment Section for more details.
Production Capacity & Future Expansion
Initial Monthly Production Goals:
- Ready-to-Fruit Mushroom Blocks (3 kg): 9,400 blocks
- Grow-at-Home Kits (1.5 kg): 5,000 kits
- Plain Sterilised Substrate Blocks (3 kg): 2,000 blocks
- Sterilised Grain for Spawn (1.5kg bags): 5,000 units
Demand is expected to be high – early commitment secures your supply.
Future Scalability & Expansion:
Our production facility is designed for significant scalability, with the ability to more than double output by increasing autoclave cycles and expanding incubation space.
- Designed for Growth: Automated equipment producing 500-600 blocks/hour; facilities easily expandable.
- Scalable Capacity: Autoclave can run up to two cycles daily, potentially multiplying initial output by 2.8x.
- Room for Expansion: Additional space available on-site to smoothly scale up as market demand increases.
Your early support and engagement directly shape the scale and success of this project – helping us meet the UK’s growing mushroom cultivation needs.
For Questions or How to Get Involved:
Ways to Show Your Support
❤️ Spread the Word
Share this campaign with growers, investors, enthusiasts – anyone passionate about sustainable mushroom cultivation.
❤️ Contribute to Our Crowdfunding
Every donation directly supports our vision and accelerates our impact.
❤️ Become a Partner
We’re actively seeking UK growers, businesses, and collaborators to shape the future of fungi together.
❤️ Share Your Expertise
Whether your background is in strategy, sales, laboratory work, IT, marketing, or anything else, your knowledge can help bring our vision to life.
❤️ Get in Touch
We warmly welcome your feedback, comments, and suggestions. Reach out – we believe teamwork makes the dream work.
Timelines for Completion
Help us Spread the Word!
❤️
Do you know someone who might be interested in our campaign?
Share this with them using the buttons below. Your support is deeply appreciated.
And don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels for project updates:
Join the Team
We’re actively seeking collaborators and volunteers who share our passion and vision. Whether you’re experienced or simply enthusiastic, we’d love you to get involved:
Marketing & Promotion
Social media management, sales, community engagement.
Operations & Strategy – Business advice, project management, logistics.
Mushroom Production – Lab technicians, spawn specialists, cultivation experts.
Tech & IT Support – Website management, automation, backend systems.
Finance & Fundraising – Grant writers, financial planners, core investors.
Infrastructure & Facilities – Builders, fabricators, and practical problem-solvers.
Collaborate With Us:
We’re keen to support your work through mutual promotion, partnerships, or knowledge-sharing. If you have ideas for collaboration, let’s discuss how we can grow together.
Host Events or Workshops:
Our space is available for educational workshops, training, and events, particularly relating to:
Mushroom Cultivation
Forestry & Regenerative Farming
Sustainable Food Networks
Health, Wellbeing & Nutrition
Interested? Get in touch.
Meet the Founder
Maya Mushrooms UK CIC is led by Paul, founder and director, who transformed a humble shipping container start-up into one of the UK’s leading mushroom cultivation suppliers.
Meet Paul Thomson
- Founder & Director – Built Maya Mushrooms from a single leaking shipping container into a nationwide success story.
- 7+ Years of Dedication – Over seven years of 100-hour work weeks, relentless reinvestment, and unwavering commitment to a strong, self-sufficient UK mushroom industry.
A Message of Gratitude
To everyone who has been part of this journey – our friends, family, customers, and the entire mushroom-growing community – we cannot thank you enough. Your support, encouragement, and belief in our mission have carried us to where we stand today, on the brink of something truly transformative.
To our future supporters and donors: your generosity will empower communities, unlock opportunities, and drive positive ecological impact for years to come.
Thank you for being part of our journey.
Funding Goals and Opportunities
Maya Mushrooms UK CIC aims to raise £398,000 through three crowdfunding rounds (approx. £133,000 each) to establish the UK’s first non-profit mushroom block production hub. Funds will purchase essential equipment and cover initial setup costs.
If our targets are exceeded, additional funds will allow us to expand our product range, hire support staff, further upgrade equipment, and accelerate our impact.
We will leverage strategic partnerships with community organisations, existing businesses, and social media outreach to maximise campaign success.
Investor & Sponsorship Opportunities
We offer attractive options for core investors contributing £50,000 or more, providing revenue-based loan repayments with returns between 5 – 10%, depending on investment size and terms. This allows investors to earn financial returns while directly supporting sustainable agriculture and local communities.
Core investors also have the option to join our board, influencing strategy and guiding the project’s long-term success.
Commercial sponsorship packages offer businesses visibility within the rapidly growing sustainable food, health, and wellness markets, aligning your brand directly with our positive community-driven mission.
If you’re interested in investing, sponsoring, or collaborating, please contact us to discuss further.
Financial Snapshots
Help us Spread the Word!
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Do you know someone who might be interested in our campaign?
Share this with them using the buttons below. Your support is deeply appreciated.
And don’t forget to follow us on our social media channels for project updates:
Questions? Get in Touch!
Have questions about funding, partnerships, or our non-profit approach? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out, and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.
For Questions or How to Get Involved: