June 26, 2018

Finless Foods CEO and co-founder Mike Selden announced a successful $3.5 million Seed Round for the company led by Draper Associates, and including Softmatter VC, Blue Horizon, Hemisphere Ventures, Yakumi Investment, Starlight, Babel Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, Breakoff Capital, and the U-Start Club.

“As a year-old company founded by two biochemists with a history of environmental activism and agricultural research, we are honored to gain the support from large names like Draper and more to bring resources to bear on this important technology at such an early stage,” said Selden in an announcement published in Medium.

Launched through the IndieBio accelerator in 2017, Finless Foods became the first cellular aquaculture company to create the first fish cakes to ever be eaten (video). It went on to secure backing from Hatch, the first aquaculture-focused accelerator in the world, launched at the turn of 2018 in Bergen Norway by Dr. Carsten Krome of Alimentos Ventures.

“We see a need for aquaculture start-ups, especially in the health, nutrition, technology and production sectors, to learn what it means to be ‘investment-ready’ in order to raise the necessary funds to scale and realise their full potential,” said Krome upon the accelerator’s launch.

Answering the call, Krome launched Hatch in Bergen, Norway, and partnered with  NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster and Bergen Teknologioverføring (BTO) to offer innovative early stage aquaculture startups support in the form of capital and business support.

Years, Not Decades

Selden states in an announcement published via Medium, that the year-old company has already “dramatically lowered costs” and is now well-positioned to achieve rapid commercialization over a time span of years, not decades.

The company also has relocated to a new facility in Emeryville, California, that provides the startups room to grow.

“This round will bring us to the end of our initial R&D phase, meaning we’ll have the tools necessary to move into production pending the closing of a Series A,” noted Selden. “The opportunity this money gives us to perfect our science and create delicious, safe, and healthy food is genuinely exciting to our entire team.”

“What If It Works”

Growth in global demand for seafood has increased at 3.2 percent per year since 1960, outpacing the 1 percent annual growth in global population, according to Philippe de Lapérouse, co-head and managing director with HighQuest Consulting. Over the same time period, per capita consumption of seafood has more than doubled from 10 kilograms per person to more than 20 kilograms per person today, driven by demand from Asian markets where seafood has historically been a cornerstone of the regional diet, and by consumers in developed markets who are looking to include healthier protein in their diets.

However, due to overfishing and the depletion of wild-caught fish stocks, as well as concern over the ecological ramifications of wild catch fishing, and health concerns surrounding mercury and heavy metal levels found in some seafood, consumers are looking for seafood that leaves a lighter footprint. Enter, cellular aquaculture. “Clean”, or laboratory-created seafood options not only satisfy these concerns but eliminate questions regarding animal welfare.

“The ‘what if it works’ for Finless is enormous: on the health front, they’re creating a cleaner fish product without the growing plastic and mercury content; on the access front, that fish’s availability won’t be restricted to coastal areas; and on the environment front, they have the potential to reduce or eliminate the worldwide problem of overfishing,” said Billy Draper, Draper Associates.

-Lynda Kiernan