Cultivated Seafood

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See all news on cultivated seafood. Discover the key players, new products and latest trends in the cell cultured seafood market.

Wildtype raises $100 million

© Wildtype

Wildtype Raises $100 Million in Largest Ever Series B Round for Cultivated Seafood Company

Wildtype raises $100 million from investors including Leonardo DiCaprio to expand production capacity in preparation for market launch. San Francisco-based cultivated salmon startup Wildtype has raised $100 million in its Series B funding round. Led by L Catterton, the round is the largest ever for a cultivated seafood company. The list of investors includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, Cargill, several notable chefs and athletes, and more. The round takes the total amount raised by Wildtype to over $120 million. Wildtype says it will use the funding to expand production capacity. The startup is preparing for a market launch at fine dining restaurant partners as soon as its cultivated salmon gains regulatory approval from the FDA. Pilot plant Wildtype initially launched a preorder list in …

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BlueNalu fish tacos

©BlueNalu

BlueNalu Partners With Japan’s Largest Sushi Operator FOOD & LIFE COMPANIES to Supply Cultured Tuna

Multinational foodservice company FOOD & LIFE COMPANIES (F&LC) announces a new partnership with cultured seafood startup BlueNalu to develop a supply chain for bluefin tuna and other sushi-grade seafood.  The two companies plan to work together on product development and marketing, as well as supporting a regulatory framework for cell-based seafood production in Japan. Based in Osaka, F&LC owns the largest number of sushi restaurants in Japan, and operates more than 1,000 restaurants across Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and mainland China.  San Diego-based BlueNalu is the world’s most funded cultured seafood company, having raised over $80 million to create tuna and other fish species directly from cultivated cells. With the latest deal, BlueNalu now has partnerships with three of the world’s top ten …

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© Bert Folsom - stock.adobe.com

UPSIDE Foods Acquires Seafood Startup Cultured Decadence to Accelerate Cultivated Lobster

UPSIDE Foods, formerly known as Memphis Meats, has acquired cultivated seafood startup Cultured Decadence, which specializes in cell-cultured lobster. The startup will adopt the UPSIDE brand while remaining in Wisconsin as part of UPSIDE’s midwestern technology hub. The acquisition follows the recent opening of UPSIDE’s $50 million Engineering, Production & Innovation Center (EPIC) in California last year, the world’s most advanced facility for producing cultivated meat, poultry and seafood. According to a press release, EPIC’s technology platform will be capable of producing UPSIDE’s existing products and Cultured Decadence’s full species portfolio. Founded in 2020, Cultured Decadence is developing a wide array of high-value seafood products using proprietary cell lines and cell feed, including lobster meat. The acquisition will allow the startup to expand and complement …

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Oysters cultivated

©Charlotte Coneybeer/Unsplash

Pearlita Opens Research Lab to Develop World’s First Cultivated Oysters

Pearlita, the latest startup seeking to disrupt seafood, announces the opening of a new research lab in Raleigh, NC to grow oysters from cellular agriculture.  While many alt-seafood companies focus on cell cultivation of various species of fish and crustaceans, Pearlita is the first food tech company to work with oysters – a global delicacy whose soaring popularity has led to increased pressure on ecologically important wild stocks.    By cultivating oysters’ special tissues from living cells, Pearlita hopes to fully recreate the mollusk’s beloved flavors and textures without the overharvesting and killing of wild populations.  In addition to easing the burden on marine life, Pearlita’s production process would take place in a controlled and sterile environment, eliminating the risk of contamination from pollution and …

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Bob Schultz, Aqua Cultured Foods

Bob Schultz, ©Aqua Cultured Foods

Aqua Cultured Foods: “Using Biological Processes to Solve Large Systematic Issues is Going to Be Paramount”

Chicago’s Aqua Cultured Foods has developed the first whole-muscle cut sushi-quality seafood through microbial fermentation. The young company, founded only in 2020, closed an oversubscribed round in October in the largest ever pre-seed round in alt-seafood, and one of the largest ever in fermented proteins. Bob Schultz is the company’s new lead scientist. Schultz comes to Aqua Cultured Foods from SIMULATE, an early-stage biotechnology company, where he was lead food engineer and product lead for the NUGGS plant-based chicken nugget, the fastest-growing alternative chicken nugget on the planet. It was time to catch up with Bob and get his insights into the wonderful world of fermentation. Congratulations on joining Aqua Cultured! What made you want to be part of this team and bring this product …

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Cult Foods Invests in Umami Meats Cultivated Seafood

©Vinicius Benedit on Unsplash

CULT Food Science Invests in Umami Meat, Will Produce Cultivated Japanese Eel, Yellowfin Tuna & Red Snapper

CULT Food Science Corp., a Canadian investment platform, announces it has completed a strategic investment into Singapore cultivated seafood startup Umami Meats.  Umami Meats, which was named a semi-finalist in the XPRIZE “Feed the Next Billion” competition, plans to leverage proprietary technology the startup has developed that is capable of lowering the costs of producing cellular growth serum. Cell growth serum is a critically important ingredient for cultivating cells into meat, but the product’s prohibitively high cost has consistently presented a major challenge to the cultivated meat industry. According to CULT, the production of growth serum for cultivated seafood accounts for 80% of total production costs.  Lowering the price of cultivated seafood  By focusing on reducing the price of serum, CULT says, Umami aims to …

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founders of cultivated salmon company Wildtype

© Wildtype

Cultivated Salmon Producer Wildtype Announces Retail & Restaurant Partnerships Across USA

In what may be a first for the industry, US cultivated salmon producer Wildtype has announced distribution partnerships with SNOWFOX and Pokéworks. SNOWFOX operates sushi bars at 1,230 grocery locations across the US, while Pokéworks is a rapidly-growing fast-casual restaurant chain that currently has 65 locations. These partnerships will ultimately allow customers to sample Wildtype’s cultivated sushi-grade salmon for the first time. “We believe that people should have the option of fresh fish without the harmful metal toxins, microplastics, or antibiotics commonly found in seafood today,” co-founder and Chief Scientist Aryé Elfenbein told vegconomist earlier this year. However, Wildtype will need to significantly scale its production and gain regulatory approval from the FDA before a market launch is possible. The company took a step towards …

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cultivated seabass fillet

© GFI/University of Lisbon

Scientists Use Algae to Develop Cultivated Seabass Fillet Without Bones

Scientists from the University of Lisbon have begun a project called Algae2Fish, with the aim of developing a boneless cultivated seabass fillet. The project has been made possible with funding from The Good Food Institute. Associate Professor Frederico Ferreira from the university’s Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences will lead a team of scientists working on the project. They will use fish cells to grow a cultivated seabass fillet free of the mercury and microplastics often found in conventional fish. 3D printing technology will be used to produce scaffolds that will give the fillet structure, replicating the fibrous texture of fish. The scaffolds will be formed using material from algae and plants, with the algae contributing valuable omega-3 fatty acids such as those found in conventional …

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Sea bass sashimi plated Aqua Cultured

©Aqua Cultured Foods

Aqua Cultured Foods Partners With Switzerland’s Largest Retailer Migros For Ultra-Realistic Alternative Seafood

Following its oversubscribed pre-seed round last month – the largest ever pre-seed in alt-seafood and one of the largest ever in fermented proteins – Chicago startup Aqua Cultured Foods announces the signing of a Proof of Concept (PoC) with Migros, Switzerland’s largest retailer, to expedite development of its fungus-based alt seafood products created through microbial fermentation. “The Swiss market welcomes food tech, and we are ready to introduce the region to the future of alternative proteins.”  The female-led company officially launched this September, announcing it had developed the world’s first whole-muscle cut alt seafood on the market. Aqua Cultured has filed three patents and utilizes biomass fermentation and a proprietary strain of fungi to create sushi-quality filets of tuna and whitefish such as sea bass, …

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Chris Dammann Bluu Biosciences

Christian Dammann ©Bluu GmbH

Cultivated Seafood Producer Bluu Biosciences Announces BlueNalu Co-Founder Chris Dammann as Inaugural COO

Bluu Biosciences, pioneer in the development and production of cultivated fish in Europe, has appointed Chris Dammann as the company’s first COO. Chris is considered one of the world’s leading experts in cellular agriculture and cultivated fish development. Prior to joining Bluu Biosciences Chris co-founded BlueNalu, one of the first companies worldwide to specialize in cultivated seafood. He developed the technology strategy and scientific approach for the company, and as its CTO led the implementation of a technology platform for cultivated fish. He built and led the R&D team, while also managing collaborations, IP, IT and the establishment of a PMO. Before founding BlueNalu Chris was Director of Science & Technology at the Invention Development Fund of Intellectual Ventures. Other career stops include the role …

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tunato

@ Mimic Seafood

Creating Quality Plant-Based and Cultivated Seafood is Complex. PISCES Wants to Change That.

Plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products have had huge success in recent years, and seafood replacements may not be far behind. Companies like BlueNalu and Good Catch are providing tasty seafood alternatives to the market, along with the all-female company, Modern Meat, now producing plant-based seafood.

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A petri dish with crustacean flesh

© MarineXcell

MarineXcell: Unique Stem Cell Technology for Cultivated Shrimp, Lobster, and Crab

90% of the world’s shellfish stocks are exploited, overexploited, or depleted, gravely affecting marine ecosystems. The FAO estimates that by 2030, global demand for shellfish will rise significantly, challenging traditional production methods, including aquaculture. “Cultured shellfish meat emerges as a strategic response to these challenges,” Prof. Yosef Buganim, CSO of the Israeli startup MarineXcell, told Cultivated X. MarineXcell, founded in 2023 by Buganim, an HHMI international scholar renowned for pioneering work in stem cell research; Dr. Gadi Lipiner (CEO), an experienced executive and scientific consultant; and Leonardo Berezowsky, a finance and operations expert, aims to create a sustainable and reliable source of seafood. “By leveraging technological advancements, MarineXcell aims to address the increasing demand for shrimp, lobster, and crab, minimizing environmental impact, preserving marine ecosystems, …

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