On 7 April 2026, marking the tenth anniversary of its Next Innov programme, Banque Populaire du Sud awarded Mycea the Grand Prix of its innovation awards. The recognition comes in the year the company moves its biofungicides from the laboratory to the field.
At the evening held in Mauguio (Hérault) to celebrate ten years of the Next Innov division and the Sud Innovation business centre, Cyril Brun, Chief Executive Officer of Banque Populaire du Sud, presented the Next Innov 2026 Grand Prix to Dominique Barry-Etienne, co-founder and Managing Director, Science, and to Aline Bsaibes, Managing Director, Business and Partnerships.
Five companies were recognised in their respective categories. Mycea received the Grand Prix, the top distinction of the awards.
A biocontrol deeptech recognised for its innovation
According to Banque Populaire du Sud, Next Innov is the largest banking network dedicated to supporting innovation in France: 130 experts across the country, 650 companies supported over ten years, and €150 million mobilised in funding dedicated to innovation.
Deeply involved in financing regional start-ups, Banque Populaire du Sud used this award to acknowledge Mycea’s business model and the maturity of its team. For a deeptech company, recognition from the financial ecosystem is a meaningful signal.
This recognition is part of a trajectory under way since 2018: the i-Lab Grand Prix from the French Ministry of Research in 2020, Bpifrance’s Deeptech label, and admission in 2026 to the France Deeptech association, alongside companies working in gene therapy, bioproduction and microelectronics. At each stage, a player from the scientific or financial ecosystem has supported Mycea’s development.
2026, the year of field trials
In 2026, Mycea is running field trials in several European countries, targeting major crop diseases, alongside trials conducted with industrial partners.
Since it was founded in 2018, Mycea has been exploring a reservoir of biodiversity largely untapped in biocontrol: fungi from French forests. From this work, the deeptech has built a collection of more than 750 species and 2,000 active extracts, and developed a bioproduction platform based on bioreactors, installed at the Biopôle Euromédecine in Montpellier.
The next step will be regulatory approval, in Europe and then in Latin America.
What Mycea stands for
As chemical compounds are withdrawn from the market, the toolbox farmers rely on to fight crop diseases is running dry. Mycea is working to provide alternatives derived from nature — nature-based solutions rather than synthetic ones — designed to be both effective and economically accessible for the agricultural market.
This endeavour rests on the work of researchers, engineers and technicians, and on the commitment of a long-term shareholder, Vol-V, which has backed this vision since 2022.
The regional Next Innov 2026 Grand Prix recognises Mycea at the moment it prepares to demonstrate, disease by disease, that forest fungi can protect crops.
To learn more about Mycea’s approach and its route to market, contact the team.
