Functional fungi supplement brand Dirtea has topped a list of the UK’s fastest-growing food and drink brands, pipping 2024’s winner Trip to the top spot on Alantra’s Fast 50 ranking.
Leaping straight to the top of the ranking with 230% compound annual sales growth (CAGR) over the past two years, Dirtea beat a hotly competitive field where the ranking’s top five brands registered their highest-ever average rate of growth.
Hot on Dirtea’s heels was CBD drinks brand Goodrays, at 218% CAGR, with supplements brand Tonic, fellow CBD-infused brand Trip and functional mushroom blender Spacegoods following to make up the rest of the Fast 50’s top five.
The ranking, compiled by midmarket financial services firm Alantra, measures the UK’s fastest-growing private companies across their past two years of trading. In 2026’s report, the average business recorded revenues of £48m in its past year of trading, and the full list made up revenues of £2.4bn in that time – well ahead of trading levels seen before Covid.
Launched by brothers Andrew and Simon Salter in 2021, Dirtea was born out of an evangelical passion for functional mushrooms. Having benefited personally, they saw an opportunity to build a business that made fungi more palatable.
“Functional mushrooms have been around for thousands of years, but the category wasn’t built for modern consumers,” he added.
“Most products lacked real efficacy, didn’t taste good, and didn’t integrate naturally into daily life. We saw an opportunity to rebuild the category properly.”
Now stocked in a range of retailers from Boots and Whole Foods to Planet Organic and, as of January 2026, Tesco, the brand first won popularity though viral marketing campaigns on TikTok and Instagram.
Designed to fit into existing daily rituals such as a morning cuppa, the brand’s products now include mushroom-dosed coffee, matcha and chai, with gummies a recent addition.
“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how people approach health. It’s no longer about extreme routines or short-term fixes. It’s about upgrading everyday habits,” said Andrew Salter.
While functional mushrooms are well established in the US, Dirtea has managed to reap first-mover advantage in the UK – with Salter confident the ‘shroom boom’ will help sustain the brand’s rapid growth.
“There’s a huge white space for a brand that combines performance, taste, clean ingredients and design at scale,” he said.
“We believe we’re building the most complete product range in the category, not just in terms of quality, but in how it fits into people’s lives.”
Taking second place on the ranking with 218% CAGR, Goodrays offers a range of CBD-infused drinks made from natural ingredients.
Like Dirtea’s Salter brothers, Goodrays founder Eoin Keenan decided to set up the business after experiencing the benefits of CBD for himself. Starting out as a campaigner for the legalisation of CBD, he then launched Goodrays in 2020.
“I thought the opportunity was there to change people’s perceptions and to disrupt the way we consume food and drink,” he said.
“Today, the functional drinks category is growing 14 times more quickly than soft drinks, but when I think back to what was on the shelves before we launched in 2020, there was just nothing I wanted to drink.”
After a slow start and some tinkering with the final product, the company made its breakthrough in 2023 with distribution deals in Waitrose and Tesco. Today, the drinks are available in over 10,000 retail outlets in the UK, including Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, and the company has launched into the French market.
A recent €5.7m (£5m) Series A fundraise has given the brand potential for further growth, alongside the arrival of the former international MD of water brand Liquid Death, Ben Dando, as the company’s new MD.
“It’s important that more people have access to these kinds of products and that’s what we’re really excited about now,” said Keenan, of the CBD-infused category.
“The retailers also get it now – not just from a commercial perspective, but also because they see that these products are ultimately better for consumers than what previously existed in the soft drinks market.”
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