July 12, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

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.

Granted, there are only a handful of companies around the world right now developing cell-cultured seafood, but the work they are doing is bringing the industry closer to commercial viability; their numbers are growing, and so are the investment rounds.

One such startup is Berlin-based BLUU Seafood, a leading European food biotech company producing cell cultivated fish that has announced the successful close of a EUR 16 million (US$17.8 million) Series A led by Sparkfood and LBBW VC. 

Additional participants in the round included SeaX Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, Delivery Hero, Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg GmbH, and Dr. Oetker, bringing total funding to-date for the company to EUR 23 million (US$25.6 million). 

A hurdle that has been universally challenging for the entire cultivated meat and fish industries has been one of regulatory and governmental clearance. Singapore was the first market to issue its approval for the sale of cultivated chicken in 2020, but in recent weeks, startups were given a major boost when a landmark decision by the USDA to approve the sale of lab-grown chicken to U.S. consumers from two California companies – Upside Foods and Good Meat. 

This decision has signaled a positive future for the industry in one of the world’s largest markets, sparking investments and strategic plans for expansion and commercialization. 

On the back side of this news, BLUU Seafood stated that it has initiated the approval process for its technology and processes with the U.S. FDA, adding that it plans to follow up with Europe next. 

The company explained that it will use this new funding to drive these regulatory approval processes, to expand its research work, and to initiate pilot production of its hybrid products such as fish balls and fish fingers made from cultivated fish cells blended with plant-based proteins, which the company first presented in 2022. 

According to its vision, the startup is currently preparing to open its pilot production plant with construction to be completed by this fall. Once operational, BLUU Seafood will shift out of lab scale and achieve the milestone of scaling up production into larger 500-liter fermenters, with a target of entering the Singapore market by 2024. 

“Our successful Series-A demonstrates the enormous potential that lies in cultivated fish as a platform technology for sustainable animal protein and underlines the strong scientific development that we at BLUU Seafood have delivered so far,” said Dr. Sebastian Rakers, co-founder and CEO, BLUU Seafood.

“Together with our strong, international investor base, we can start the next stage of development and bring our first products to market.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief 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 Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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