USA – BlueNalu, a California-based food company producing seafood directly from fish cells, has closed its Series A funding round, raising US$20 million from a number of strategic investors.
The Series A round was co-led by Stray Dog Capital, CPT Capital, New Crop Capital, and Clear Current Capital with participation of five strategic investors, including Griffith Foods, Nutreco, Pulmuone, Rich Product Ventures, and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas.
The Series A round follows BlueNalu’s seed funding round in 2018 which was the start-up raise US$4.5 million.
BlueNalu’s A round attracted a significant number of strategic investors that provide a broad range of expertise and infrastructure in supply chain, operations, sales, marketing and distribution.
To date the sea-food company has received significant backing from investors from 11 nations – demonstrating global interest in the disruptive potential for the company.
The company plans to use the financing to develop a good manufacturing practices (GMP) pilot production facility in San Diego, expand its world-class team, implement strategic alliances for global operations and distribution, and prepare for its market launch.
“BlueNalu has made considerable progress toward bringing cell-based seafood products to the world,” said Lou Cooperhouse, president & CEO of BlueNalu.
“We have designed and executed a platform technology in which we will ultimately offer a broad array of sustainable cell-based seafood products to consumers, and our team has been extremely focused on implementing systems and processes that will be needed for cost-effective, large-scale production.
“We are eager to form partnerships with these five strategic investors, so that we can efficiently commercialize and launch our cell-based seafood products in nations around the world.”
“As global demand for seafood continues to increase, and our supply continues to be compromised, we are excited at the potential for BlueNalu to play a significant role in feeding the planet in the decades to come,” said Chuck Laue, co-founder and chair of Stray Dog Capital.
In January this year, BlueNalu announced a partnership with Dutch animal nutrition and aquafeed company, Nutreco intended to create a more stable and sustainable supply-chain solution as the global demand for seafood is continually increasing.
Based in San Diego, California, BlueNalu began its operations in 2018 and recently launched one of its first commercial products, yellowtail amberjack, a whole-muscle seafood product prepared with various cooking techniques.
