October 15, 2019

By Lynda Kiernan

Cultured seafood production got another vote of investor confidence as Wild Type announced it has closed a $12.5 million Series A led by CRV, and including Maven Ventures, and return investors from the startup’s Seed round, Spark Capital and Root Ventures. This round marks the first Series A secured by a cell-cultured seafood startup.

Founded in San Francisco by former U.S. diplomat Justin Kolbeck and aspiring cardiologist Arye Elfenbe in 2016, Wild Type’s initial goal was to  “address the most pressing challenges of our generation: climate change, food security, and health.” To achieve this, the company’s team of food scientists, engineers, biologists, and biomedical engineers have developed cell-cultured salmon that can meet global demand while also increasing transparency and traceability in a global industry that has had a long history of discrepancies in its often opaque supply chain.

This round brings the company’s funding to $16 million following a $3.5 million Seed round in April 2018 led by Spark Capital, and including Root Ventures, Mission Bay Capital, and a group of angel investors.

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, driven by demand from Asian markets where seafood has historically been a cornerstone of the regional diet, and by consumers in developed markets who are looking to include healthier protein in their diets.

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. 

While the market is beginning to boom for meat alternative products made from plant protein, or fungi, cell cultured meat and seafood is quickly gaining traction as a means to provide consumers with the same foods they currently eat, but in a far more sustainable and transparent way.

Other cultured seafood startups recently gaining notice and capital include Finless Foods, which announced a successful $3.5 million Seed Round led by Draper Associates in June 2018; BlueNalu, which raised $4.5 million in Seed funding led by New Crop Capital in August 2018; and Singapore-based cellular startup Shiok Meats, which raised $4.6 million in Seed funding for its aquaculture technology in June of this year. 

During that same month, Wild Type showcased the first cell-based salmon dinner in Portland, Oregon, featuring salmon sushi rolls, salmon tartare, and salmon ceviche.

Having been focused on product development and reducing the cost of production, Wild Type plans to use the capital from this round to accelerate the pace of development of its cell-based seafood, and to strengthen their abilities to scale up production prior to commercialization.

“We think the future is bright for the cultured meat industry, and there is a lot of exciting work ahead to scale this to the mass market,” stated Spark Capital in an announcement on Medium.

The startup is also expanding upon its collaborative efforts with the chef and restaurant community spanning California and Hawaii.

“These chefs and restaurant owners have generously invested their skills and expert palates to help us improve the quality of our early products,” Wild Type said in an announcement outlining its latest fundraising on Medium. “One of our core beliefs is that culinary input should not be confined to the ideas within Wild Type, but open to a wide community of collaborators.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.