Aquaculture investment fund Aqua-Spark has announced an investment in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.-based microalgae company Kuehnle AgroSystems (KAS)
The amount of the investment was not released, but it came as part of KAS’ Series A funding round. In a press release, Aqua-Spark said it had invested “significant resources to support the transfer of KAS' pioneering technology to industrial scale.” KAS has patented a fermentation process that produces algae products with numerous commercial applications.
"KAS have been working on the development and commercialization of our algal natural astaxanthin for over five years. With Aqua-Spark coming on board, we can now fully exploit the opportunity to bring our novel, affordable, sustainably produced astaxanthin to the salmon and shrimp markets and, ultimately, replace synthetic astaxanthin,” KAS CEO Claude Kaplan said. “We are extremely excited to work with Aqua-Spark, and their other portfolio companies, and to be able to tap into their vast expertise and networks as we look to bring our aquafeed and nutraceutical products to market in 2022."
Astaxanthin is used in salmon and shrimp aquafeed and as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory in the human nutraceuticals markets – markets with a combined USD 1 billion (EUR 915 million) in annual value, according to KAS Co-Founder and CTO Heidi Kuehnle. For salmon and shrimp, astaxanthin alternatives are used as a feed additive to give farmed products a pink hue normally achieved through the consumption of plankton and zooplankton in the wild. Synthetic astaxanthin is produced from petroleum sources, but KAS’ natural astaxanthin will be a more affordable and customer-preferred source of natural astaxanthin, Kuehnle said.
"This pivotal technology has the potential to revolutionize algae production for pigments and protein by not only slashing operational cost, cropping time, and water footprint today but with the potential in the future for recycling the gas generated during fermentation to produce feedstock to be fed back into the fermentation process,” Kuehnle said.
Prior to Aqua-Spark’s investment, KAS participated in the Hatch accelerator program, another investment within Aqua-Spark's portfolio. Aqua-Spark co-founders Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz said the investment in KAS fits well into its mission-driven portfolio, which is geared toward “transform[ing] the global aquaculture industry into one that is healthier, more sustainable, and more accessible.”
"We're excited to welcome KAS to our portfolio because we believe producing salmonids fed with natural astaxanthin will not only improve their health but also help to shift consumer perception of the farmed species,” they said. “KAS is poised to have a valuable impact on the sustainable farming of salmonids, by making natural astaxanthin more affordable for farmers who already use it, and by encouraging more farmers who use synthetic astaxanthin to switch to the natural variant."
Since 2015, Aqua-Spark has invested in 26 enterprises and it now has EUR 300 million (USD 328 million) in assets under management. The goal of the fund is to ultimately make sustainability widespread and profitable enough that it becomes the only way to farm fish, Velings and Novogratz said.
Photo courtesy of Kuehnle AgroSystems
