Aqua Cultured Foods, a female-led foodtech company using fermentation to produce seafood alternatives, has raised $2.1 million in its pre-seed funding round. According to Aqua, the oversubscribed round is the largest ever pre-seed in alt-seafood, and one of the largest ever in fermented proteins.
Aqua Cultured Foods Partners with Ginkgo Bioworks To Elevate Scallop and Tuna Alternatives
Today, Aqua Cultured Foods, specializing in alternative seafood production through microbial fermentation, has announced a partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks, a cell programming and biosecurity company. This collaboration seeks to refine and enhance the production process of Aqua’s fish-free seafood products, which have been developed to mimic the texture, taste, and appearance of fresh-caught seafood. Based in Chicago, Aqua Cultured Foods has been developing seafood alternatives using a patent-pending fermentation technique and a blend of microbes, fibers, and plant-derived flavors to replicate the umami profile and buttery texture characteristic of oceanic seafood. Its inaugural products, tuna, and scallop alternatives, are said to retain their quality for up to six weeks. The company first began public tastings of its beta alternative tuna, shrimp, and scallops this time …