BLUU Seafood, the European food biotech producing cultivated fish, continues its growth path and successfully closes its Series A. By raising EUR 16 million, the German start-up secures the necessary capital to further advance the work on its groundbreaking technology and the market launch of its first products. Cultivated fish is real animal protein directly grown from fish cells without killing the animal.

The Series A funding was led by Sparkfood, a subsidiary of Sonae, and by LBBW VC. Sparkfood, an investor and operator in innovative food companies across Europe, is an excellent fit with the existing outstanding international food and impact investors. Further participants in the round were Asian investor SeaX Ventures and other renowned VCs such as Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, Delivery Hero, Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg GmbH, and Dr. Oetker. In total, BLUU Seafood has raised more than EUR 23 million since its founding three years ago.

With the fresh money, the company will focus primarily on the regulatory approval of its first products, in addition to expanding its research work and initiating pilot production. The main focus will be on hybrid products such as fish balls and fish fingers made from cultivated fish cells, the same as the ones presented in the summer of 2022. The start-up plans its market entry in Singapore, where the sale of cultivated chicken has already been approved by regulators in 2020, making it the ideal launch pad for BLUU’s cultivated fish, which the company expects to get approved by 2024.

In the US, cultivated meat and fish are also about to be launched into the market after recent USDA and FDA approvals for cultivated protein start-ups GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods. With the final approval of the US Department of Agriculture granted a few days ago, the sale is now officially allowed. BLUU Seafood, too, has initiated the approval process with the FDA. Europe will be the next to follow. The company is currently preparing to open its pilot production plant, with construction work expected to be completed by fall this year. With this plant, BLUU Seafood will leave lab scale and reach another important milestone by scaling up production into larger fermenters of up to 500 liters.

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