Cultivated seafood might be just around the corner.
What’s happening:
- California based cultivated fish startup BlueNalu has raised $33.5M in a new Series B financing
- The new round included participation from notable investors including Jim Mellon’s Agronomics (LSE: ANIC)
The big idea:
- BlueNalu is focused on producing cell cultivated bluefish tuna often referred to as ’toro'
- Toro is being heavily depleted from the oceans and also varies wildly in quality due to it being consistently overfished
- Through their development of new cell lines BlueNalu is aiming to produce cell cultivated toro that can be used for sushi, sashimi, nigiri and more
Why it matters:
- Much of the venture capital funding for cell cultivated startups has been focused on steak, beef and meat products
- Cell cultivated fish represents a unique opportunity due to the elimination of many fish species globally as a result of overfishing
Going deeper:
- BlueNalu has numerous notable partnerships to enter into Asia with companies such as Mitsubishi, Pulmuone and Thai Union
- They’ve also entered into a partnership with Japan's largest sushi restaurant chain Food & Life Companies
By the numbers:
- Early projections that have been publicly released by BlueNalu claim that their bluefish tuna will be produced with a 75% gross margin upon beginning to operate their purpose built facility
