BLUU Seafood secures 16 million euros in Series A financing

BLUU Seafood continues its growth path and successfully closes its Series A financing. Construction of a pilot production plant will be completed by fall. Market entry in Singapore targeted by 2024.

Berlin - With its Series-A of 16 million euros, German startup Bluu Seafood secures the capital it needs to drive the market entry of its first products. The farmed fish meat is real animal protein extracted directly from fish cells without killing the animal.

Together with our strong, international investor base, we can move into 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 lead 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 regulatory approval of its first products, expand research and launch pilot production. The focus will be on hybrid products such as fish balls and fish sticks, which are made from cultured fish cells in combination with plant proteins. BLUU had first presented these products in 2022. The startup is aiming to enter the Singapore market by 2024, where the sale of farmed poultry has already been approved by regulators in 2020.

According to its 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

The U.S. market entry of cultured meat and fish is also imminent, following recent USDA and FDA approvals for biotech startups GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. With final approval recently granted by the U.S. 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 this fall. With this facility, BLUU Seafood will move beyond laboratory scale and reach another important milestone by scaling up production into larger fermenters with capacities of up to 500 liters.