Cellular-based seafood firms were able to raise nearly twice as much money in 2021 as they did a year earlier, and investments continue to flow into cultivated seafood firms in 2022.
Cell-based or cultivated seafood is the growth of seafood via a lab-based cell-replication process. Companies involved in such work raised more than USD 115 million (EUR 109.6 million) in capital in 2021, according to a new report from the Good Food Institute, the trade group representing the seafood analog sector.
On 21 April, cultivated meat start-up Upside Foods raised USD 400 million (EUR 381 million) in a Series C fundraising round, led by Singapore-based Temasek and the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund. Cargill, Givaudan, and Tyson Foods, as well as Bill Gates, John Doerr, Kimbal, and Christiana Musk also invested in the round. Upside Foods purchased Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.-based cell-based lobster-maker Cultured Decadence in January 2022. The investment “will help us drive product innovation, partnerships, and the infrastructure needed to make cultivated meat at scale,” Upside Foods Founder and CEO Uma Valeti said in a press release.
“Upside has reached an historic inflection point, moving from R&D to commercialization. Our team at Upside continues to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges in our mission to make our favorite food a force for good,” Valeti said. “Working in partnership with our world-class coalition of investors, we’re excited to bring delicious, sustainable, and humane meat to the consumers around the world.”
In Israel, cultivated seafood start-up E-FISHient has received backing from Israel’s BioMeat Foodtech and the Volcani Institute to boost its efforts to manufacture and market cultivated Nile tilapia. E-FISHient CEO Dana Levin said the company will use non-animal serum in its cell cultures.
“The Nile tilapia is one of the most commonly grown fish species in global aquaculture – thus presenting a large market, while the serum itself is an additional product intended to serve the whole cultivated meat industry in general,” Levin said. “I’m proud of the opportunity to lead E-FISHient toward becoming a global player that spearheads innovation in the field of cultivated fish production. The huge ecological damage from the fishing industry, together with the expected growth in world population, call for an urgent solution that will supply clean, healthful, nutritious, ecologically sound, high-quality fish meat for us and for the sake of the planet.”
And on 26 April, the Israel Innovation Authority backed SimpliiGood, a start-up developing a spirulina-based smoked salmon product. SimpliiGood Founder and CEO Lior Shalev said the product is being developed thanks to new texturization technology that opens up the creation of salmon-like chunks solely from spirulina that have the same mouthfeel as actual smoked salmon. And the colorization of the product was achieved through identifying and isolating the native beta carotene pigment naturally present in spirulina, he said.
Shanghai, China-based start-up CellX, which raised USD 5 million (EUR 4.7 million) in September 2021 and which will soon announce the results of a new fundraising round, but on 2 May, it said it is teaming up with Berlin, Germany-based Bluu Seafood, which raised USD 8.2 million (EUR 7 million) in March 2021. Bluu Seafood, formerly Bluu Biosciences, is developing cultivated and plant-based seafood and is aiming for regulatory approval in Germany by the end of 2023, according to Simon Fabich, the company’s co-founder and managing director.
The new strategic partnership will see the two companies work together to attain regulatory compliance and “expand consumer acceptance of lab-grown protein products in the Chinese and European markets,” Fabich and CellX CEO Ziliang Yang told the South China Morning Post.
“What we are solving is a global issue, and this needs a global solution,” Yang said. “There are lots of challenges [in the supply chain], and I don’t think any company can thrive single-handedly. There is definitely a need for the industry to come together, collaborate, and share knowledge to solve these issues.”
Yang said the companies will also collaborate on procuring raw materials, building and operating production facilities, and potentially sales tie-ups. He said the companies have also set their sights on approval in Singapore and the U.S. and E.U. markets.
“We want to be the first company to bring cultivated meat to the Chinese consumer, and we also want to be the first Chinese company to bring this abroad as well,” Yang said. “Having the partnership [with Bluu Seafood] can help us establish ourselves abroad and to receive regulatory approval in other countries.”
Photo courtesy of Upside Foods
