Auckland, New Zealand-based start-up Newfish has received NZD 1.3 million (USD 839,000, EUR 787,000) in funding.
The company was created in 2020 as an initiative to develop food products from renewable and underutilized New Zealand marine resources, with a focus on seaweed. It seeks to make products that incorporate both plant and animal-based protein locally sourced from New Zealand.
Newfish’s strategy brings a unique hybrid model combining animal and non-animal proteins for human consumption, Newfish Co-Founder and General Manager Hamish Howard said.
“The reason for that is we are creating world-first products that create interest in and of themselves,” Howard said. “We are not looking at them to be meat analogs, or to be something they are not – they’re very much standalone.”
Funding towards the project came from Outset Ventures, Tangaroa Ventures, professional basketball player Steven Adams, Ngāti Hineuru, Lee Kum Kee‘s Family Council Chairwoman Andrea Lee, and PāuaCo.
Newfish sees strong international sales potential for its hybrid model, Howard said. It is working with New Zealand’s Cawthron Institute, a scientific center specializing in marine research, to research and experiment with microalgae strains native to New Zealand for culinary uses.
“The idea is to bring a much wider audience along on the journey […] that society is going to have to take towards far more sustainable and lower-impact food systems and food products,” Howard said.
The company’s sole product currently available for sale is its Pāua Saucisson, which combines blackfoot Pāua (abalone) with Kurobuta pork, Akaroa kelp, and Marlborough sauvignon blanc. It said it will soon begin selling a 100 percent plant-based mortadella developed from local microalgae and seaweed varieties.
“What’s promising about microalgae is its GMO-free provenance – and we think that’s what people will really seek as a green and clean protein that won’t cost the Earth,” Newfish Co-Founder and Director Alex Worker said.
Photo courtesy of Newfish
