Kuehnle AgroSystems said it has secured multi-million dollar Series B financing to begin a shift toward industrial-level production of astaxanthin.
Astaxanthin is a necessary nutrient in salmon aquaculture, providing both the pink coloration and an essential nutrient that supports healthy salmon growth. Kuehnle said it has demonstrated a method of manufacturing astaxanthin at an industrially relevant scale using fermentation.
The company said the Series B financing was led by IVC, with participation from S2G Investments and Hatch Blue. S2G has already invested in the firm as part of the company’s previous USD 3 million (EUR 2.6 million) Series A2 funding round. The company has also seen investments from prominent aquaculture investment fund Aqua-Spark.
Kuehnle AgroSystems said the funding will help it support expanded research and development, acceleration of its strategic development program with food-ingredient company Corbion, the development of salmon feed products, global regulatory approvals for both the aquaculture and human nutrition markets, and manufacturing scale-up.
"This financing validates both our technology and our commercial strategy," Kuehnle AgroSystems CEO Claude Kaplan said. “This investment enables us to accelerate manufacturing scale-up, expand our commercial partnerships and bring a truly sustainable, reliable and cost-competitive source of natural astaxanthin to the global aquaculture and human nutrition industries. We believe this technology will fundamentally reshape the natural astaxanthin market."
Kaplan said the investments follow up on its breakthroughs earlier this year, where it produced astaxanthin using its methods at an industrial scale for the first time.
"Earlier this year we achieved something many believed impossible – the world's first production of natural astaxanthin oleoresin through dark fermentation,” Kaplan said. “Together with our manufacturing partner, Biorea, and our strategic development partner, Corbion, we have demonstrated that fermentation can become a commercially viable route to producing one of aquaculture's and nutraceutical’s most important ingredients.”
The company said the astaxanthin market is already valued at USD 2 billion (EUR ) and is projected to grow 15 percent annually. Currently, most of the astaxanthin in salmon feed is provided by companies like dsm-firmenich, which first developed the process to create astaxanthin via an industrial process after researching it in the 1950s.
Kuehnle AgroSystems has a partnership with Corbion, and the companies said they are working together to create a scalable manufacturing platform for the ingredient.
"The successful demonstration of natural astaxanthin oleoresin through dark fermentation represents a pivotal milestone," Corbion CTO Yves Boland said. "Corbion is delighted to continue working alongside KAS. By combining KAS's innovative biology with Corbion's expertise in strain development, industrial fermentation, product development and global market access, we believe this collaboration has the potential to significantly advance the sustainable production of natural astaxanthin."
