March 31, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Less than 10 months after its launch, Berlin and Lübeck-based Bluu Biosciences, the first company in Europe to develop and produce cell-based fish, announced it has raised EUR7 million in Seed funding. 

Bluu Biosciences was founded in 2020 by Dr. Sebastian Rakers and Simon Fabich with an expert team of marine biologists, cell biologists, cell and tissue engineers, and food technologists to produce sustainable cultivated fish grown in a bioreactor that will not compromise animal welfare or harm existing ecosystems.

Growth in global demand for seafood has increased at 3.2 percent per year since 1960, outpacing the 1 percent annual growth in global population, according to Philippe de Lapérouse, co-head and managing director with HighQuest Consulting. Over the same time period, per capita consumption of seafood has more than doubled from 10 kilograms per person to more than 20 kilograms per person.

Today, every four out of 10 pounds of animal protein consumed on a global scale are fish, leading to 90 percent of the world’s marine fish stock to be either exploited, over-exploited, or depleted, creating a situation primed for the emergence and successful market adoption of cell cultured seafood. 

Unlike wild-caught fish, cell-cultured fish can make a critical contribution to global animal protein supplies and future food security in a resource-friendly way at a much lower carbon footprint. It also offers a product of high nutritional value that can be readily available in areas without access to the sea – without pollutants, and through relatively short supply lines.

“Cultivated fish has the potential to feed a large portion of humanity,” said Dr. Sebastian Rakers, co-founder and managing director of Bluu Biosciences.“Our task is to rapidly operationalize the findings from biotechnological research to leverage this potential.”

This potential has also been identified by leading global food and impact investors Manta Ray Ventures and CPT Capital – both in the UK, Lever VC in the U.S, Norrsken of Sweden, and Be8 in Germany who all participated in this oversubscribed investment round.

“We are proud that we could partner with investors such as Manta Ray, CPT, Lever, and more, that believe in the importance of deep innovation for the aim of a more sustainable food system,” said Rakers.

“The round was closed in a matter of weeks, which indicates how compelling the science team and the science foundation of Bluu is,” he explained. “It also showcases the incredible interest of great investors to support this kind of initiative.”

There are only a handful of companies around the world right now developing cell-cultured seafood, but the numbers are growing, and so are the investment rounds.

Finless Foods was an early entrant, raising $3.5 million in Seed funding in 2018 led by Draper Associates, and including Softmatter VC, Blue Horizon, Hemisphere Ventures, Yakumi Investment, Starlight, Babel Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, Breakoff Capital, and the U-Start Club.

The following year, Wild Type closed on a $12.5 million Series A led by CRV which included Maven Ventures, and return investors from the startup’s Seed round, Spark Capital and Root Ventures.

Last year saw rounds build with Siok Meats, a producer of cultured shrimp, raising a $12.6 million Series A led by sustainable aquaculture and related tech investor Aqua-Spark, who was joined by an extensive cohort of global investors. 

And in January of this year San Diego-based cellular seafood startup BlueNalu raised the largest funding round to-date in the category when it closed on a $60 million Series A led by Rage Capital, and including a wide range of existing and new investors.

For Bluu Biosciences, this capital will support the company as it cooperates closely with the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Marine Biotechnology and Cell Engineering (EMB) in Lübeck, giving the company a state-of-the-art R&D environment in which to drive innovation. 

“Bluu Biosciences has set out to produce tasty and nutrient-optimized fish products from fish cells that are free of genetic engineering, antibiotics and environmental toxins,” said Rakers. “Above all, that means intensive research and development work to develop the optimal fish cell lines for subsequent production. Bluu is in the excellent position of using proprietary technologies and non-GMO immortalized cell lines to achieve that.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.