Its inclusion in the list was another accolade for the company, expanding now into the UK and US with its mushrooms used not only as a meat replacement in ready-to-eat foods in Woolworths and Coles, but on the tables of some very high-end restaurants.

Last year, the Sunshine Coast based company raised $6.5 million in a seed round led by Blackbird Venture and earlier this year there was speculation of a $25 million capital raising that co-founder Michael Fox said had not been finalised.

Fox said the Forbes Asia listing was good recognition for the team and the company.

“It’s good recognition for the team and what we have been building over the past four years,” he said.

“It’s one of those lists that potential partners might look at. It helps lend a bit of credibility.”

“We just launched in the US and UK about nine months ago and we have got really good traction.”

In the UK it is already in one of Simon Blumenthal’s Michelin starred restaurants and the Hilton Hotel restaurants in London. Its retail products are also in Marks & Spencer.

In the US, Fox can rattle off a list of existing supply deals and pending ones and the list of Australian outlets is just as long.

“Restaurants and food service is the core part of business,” he said.

The company was founded by Fox, Jim Fuller and Chris McLoghlin.

The Forbes list made 100 selections from 650 submissions from accelerators, incubators, universities, venture capitalists, small to medium enterprises, advocacy organisations and others.

Six Australian companies made the cut, including Baraja, which claims to have reinvented LiDAR lasers for use in self-driving vehicles.

Last year it raised $40 million in series B funding led by Sydney-based Blackbird Ventures, one of Australia’s top venture capital firms.

Blackbird and Grok Ventures are also among the investors in another foodtech startup, Vow, which uses a different approach replacing meat – growing cells in a laboratory.

Vow built its first cultivated meat factory in Sydney in July and plans to launch a quail product in Singapore later this year, Forbes writes.

The other Australian companies on the list are Sydney cybersecurity startup Secure Code Warrior; small business accounting app Thriday, formerly Thrive; and online education platform EntryLevel.

To qualify, companies had to be based in the Asia-Pacific region, have no more than $50 million in revenue and no more than $100 million in funding.