European biotech company Bluu Seafood has announced it has raised €16 million in Series A funding to bring cell-based fish to market.

The German startup says it will use the capital to advance the work on its technology and the market launch of its first products. The funding will drive regulatory approval of its first products, expanding research work and initiating pilot production.

The company’s focus will be on hybrid products such as fish balls and fish fingers made from cultivated fish cells blended with plant-based proteins, which Bluu first unveiled last year.

Sebastian Rakers, co-founder and CEO of Bluu Seafood, said: "Our successful Series A demonstrates the enormous potential that lies in cultivated fish as a platform technology for sustainable animal protein and underlines the strong scientific development that we at BLUU Seafood have delivered so far. Together with our strong, international investor base, we can start the next stage of development and bring our first products to market."

Bluu aims for market entry in Singapore by 2024, where the sale of cultivated chicken has already been approved by regulators in 2020.

Last week in the US, cell-based meat startups Good Meat and Upside Foods both received USDA and FDA approval for their chicken products. Bluu Seafood has initiated the approval process in the US with the FDA and is awaiting approval, the company says “Europe will follow next”.

Bluu is preparing to open its pilot production plant with construction expected to be completed in autumn this year – the plant will enable Bluu to scale-up its production process into larger fermenters of 500 litres.

The Series A funding round was led by Sparkfood and LBBW VC and included further participants SeaX Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, Delivery Hero, Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg and Dr. Oetker.

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