Cell-Based Fish Startup BlueNalu Raises $20 Million, Eyes 2021 Market Test

San Diego-based BlueNalu said the financing will enable it to develop a pilot production facility, expand staff and implement alliances for its supply chain.

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BlueNalu, a San Diego-based startup that produces seafood from fish cells, announced Wednesday that it has completed a Series A round of funding that has netted the company $20 million.

Founded in 2018, the company said the financing will enable it to develop a good manufacturing practices pilot production facility in San Diego, expand its staff and implement strategic alliances for global operations and distribution as it prepares for a market launch.

B Nlogo Long 2756 7685 646 544 RgbBlueNalu released the designs for such a facility in August 2019.

The Series A round was co-led by Stray Dog Capital, CPT Capital, New Crop Capital and Clear Current Capital, each of which participated in BlueNalu’s seed round. BlueNalu secured $4.5 million in 2018 and has attracted investors from 11 nations to-date. These investors originate from Brazil, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.

The company said the financing round attracted a significant number of strategic investors that provide a broad range of expertise and infrastructure in supply chain, operations, sales, marketing and distribution, and that those supply chain leaders will provide guidance and raw material expertise to BlueNalu.

"These include Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aquafeed, and Griffith Foods, a global product development partner to the food industry, with expertise in market insights, food science, culinary and sensory optimization," BlueNalu said in a press release. "Strategic investors also include organizations with expertise in operations, sales, and distribution, including: Pulmuone, a leader in healthy lifestyle and sustainable food products with distribution in Asia and North America; Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, a global investor and supplier of goods and services, including foods; Rich Products Ventures, the Corporate Venture arm of Rich Products Corporation, a leading multinational supplier of icings, cakes, pizza, desserts, appetizers and various bakery products, and which has a growing line of brands in the value-added seafood category."

BlueNalu previously told media outlets that it is eyeing a market test launch in San Diego by late 2021.

“BlueNalu has made considerable progress toward bringing cell-based seafood products to the world,” said Lou Cooperhouse, president & CEO of BlueNalu.  “We have designed and executed a platform technology in which we will ultimately offer a broad array of sustainable cell-based seafood products to consumers, and our team has been extremely focused on implementing systems and processes that will be needed for cost-effective, large-scale production. We are extremely thankful to the committed group of visionaries who participated in our earlier financing round and have invested again in this round; and we are eager to form partnerships with these five strategic investors, so that we can efficiently commercialize and launch our cell-based seafood products in nations around the world.”

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