BLUU Seafood secures 16 million euros in Series A financing

BLUU Seafood continues its growth course and successfully completes its Series A financing. The construction of a pilot production plant will be completed by fall. Market entry in Singapore targeted by 2024.

Berlin - With a Series A of 16 million euros, the German startup Bluu Seafood has secured the capital it needs to drive forward the market launch of its first products. The cultured fish meat is real animal protein obtained directly from fish cells without killing the animal.

Together with our strong, international investor base, we can begin the next phase of development and bring our first products to market.

Dr. Sebastian Rakers, Co-Founder & CEO BLUU Seafood

The investors who participated in the Series A financing of BLUU Seafood are Sparkfood and LBBW Venture Capital GmbH as main investors. In addition, SeaX Ventures, Manta Ray, Norrsken VC, Delivery Hero Ventures, IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH, Be8 Ventures, Sake Bosch, Frank Alexander Kuehne and Hannes Ametsreiter participated in this financing round.

The company will use the fresh capital to drive forward the regulatory approval of its first products, expand its research work and start pilot production. The focus is on hybrid products such as fish balls and fish sticks, which are made from cultured fish cells in combination with plant proteins. BLUU presented these products for the first time in 2022. The start-up is aiming to enter the Singapore market by 2024, where the sale of farmed poultry was already approved by the regulatory authorities in 2020.

According to the homepage, BLUU Seafood's current research so far includes Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout and common carp. Products include fish balls, fish sticks and salmon sashimi.

US market opens up

Farmed meat and fish are also about to enter the US market following the recent USDA and FDA approvals for biotech start-ups GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. With the recent final approval from the US Department of Agriculture, sales are now officially permitted. BLUU Seafood has also initiated the approval process with the FDA. Europe will follow next.

The company is also currently preparing to open its pilot production facility, with construction to be completed by the fall of this year. With this plant, BLUU Seafood will leave the laboratory scale and reach another important milestone by scaling up production to larger fermenters with a capacity of up to 500 liters.