Food startup BlueNalu raises $20M Series A funding to produce seafood directly from fish cells

BlueNalu, a food production startup company focused on cellular aquaculture, has closed $20 million Series A round of funding to develop a good manufacturing practices (GMP) pilot production facility in San Diego, expand its world-class team, implement strategic alliances for global operations and distribution, and prepare for its market launch.

The Series A round is 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 demonstrating global interest in the disruptive potential for the company. These investors originate from Brazil, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.

Founded in 2017 by Chris Dammann, Christopher Somogyi, and Lou Cooperhouse, the San Diego, California-based startup’s mission is to be the global leader in cellular aquaculture, providing consumers with great tasting, healthy, safe, and trusted seafood products that support the sustainability and diversity of our oceans.

BlueNalu’s A 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. The strategic investors include global supply chain leaders that 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 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.”

“BlueNalu has demonstrated global leadership in cell-based seafood, and has the team, expertise, strategy and networks that are key to its success,” said Chuck Laue, co-founder and chair of Stray Dog Capital. “As global demand for seafood continues to increase, and our supply continues to be compromised, we are excited at the potential for BlueNalu to play a significant role in feeding the planet in the decades to come.”