BlueNalu secures $60m in funding for producing cell-based seafood

US-based food technology company BlueNalu has raised $60m in debt financing from new and existing investors for producing cell-based seafood.

The company is engaged in developing a variety of seafood products directly from fish cells. It will use the funding for completing its commercial pilot facility for manufacturing cell-based seafood and support plans for market launch later this year.

Rage Capital led the $60m convertible note financing, with other significant participants, including Agronomics, Lewis & Clark AgriFood, McWin, and Siddhi Capital.

Other participating strategic investors include Radicle Growth, by way of the Radicle Protein Challenge by Syngenta, Rich Products Corporation, and Thai Union.

The convertible note financing also saw participation from AiiM Partners, Clear Current Capital, CPT Capital, Flat World Partners, KBW Ventures, Losa Group, OurCrowd, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Stray Dog Ventures.

As part of deal, BlueNalu added four new observers to its board of directors, namely Steven Finn of Siddhi Capital, Jim Mellon of Agronomics, Larry Page of Lewis & Clark AgriFood, and Alex Ruimy of Rage Capital.

BlueNalu president and CEO Lou Cooperhouse said: “The team at BlueNalu is driven to produce cell-based seafood products that are healthy for consumers, humane for animals, sustainable for our planet, and provide increased food security to each nation in which we go to market.

“This recent financing will allow us to continue advancing our mission and the next phase of our commercialisation plans, while we continue to develop strategic partnerships that we expect will provide us with global market reach during the coming years.”

The capital raised by the company is said to be the largest financing to date in the global cell-based seafood industry.

Last year, BlueNalu raised $20m in Series A funding round and $4.5m in Series Seed round in early 2018.

Going forward, BlueNalu plans to launch a wide range of cell-based seafood products from its pilot production facility in San Diego.