US-headquartered cultivated salmon producer Wildtype closed a $100m series B round yesterday that included agribusiness Cargill, as the animal-free food sector continues to pick up pace.
Private equity firm L Catterton led the round, touted as the largest yet for a cultivated seafood provider, and it also featured Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, S2G Ventures Oceans and Seafood Fund, FootPrint Coalition, Spark Capital, CRV and individuals including actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Wildtype utilises cellular agriculture technology to grow what it claims is sushi-grade salmon directly from the cells of silver salmon sourced from the northern Pacific ocean. The process removes the requirement for catching living fish and effectively avioids pollutants like mercury, microplastics or antibiotics.
The company opened its first pilot plant in San Francisco in June 2021 and will allocate the series B funds to expanding production at the facility as it prepares to commercially launch its product in its home country later this year through supply partnerships with fine dining restaurants.
Justin Kolbeck, co-founder and chief executive of Wildtype, said: “This investment provides us with the capital necessary to dramatically expand our production capabilities to match the rapid growth in awareness and demand for cultivated seafood.
“Whether you are looking for mercury and microplastic-free seafood options, or trying to eat more sustainably, we want Wildtype seafood to be accessible to as many people as possible. The enthusiastic support from our high-calibre group of investors will help us achieve this.”
The round was disclosed as 99 Counties, the US-based developer of an online marketplace where customers can access produce from regenerative farms, closed a $3.8m pre-seed round led by Omers Ventures and backed by internet technology group Alphabet’s GV unit, Union Labs and Supply Change Capital. The deals illustrate the firm investor interest in new models of food production and distribution.
Worldwide increases in population are ensuring food sustainability remains an important issue, meaning cellular meat developers are seeing interest along with creators of plant or insect-based meat alternatives, while urban and sustainable farm operators also gain ground.
Alternative meat producers have been among the most prominently backed in the sector, Impossible Foods having raised nearly $2bn as of November 2021, two years after Beyond Meat floated in a $241m initial public offering, while soy-based chicken developer Next Gen Foods secured $100m in series A funding last week.
However, several other companies in the wider space have closed nine-figure rounds in recent months. They include a $350m series C round for microbial protein developer Nature’s Fynd in July 2021 and urban farm operator Plenty’s $400m series E round last month.
Seafood is perhaps the most urgent of all the sustainable food areas, considering the decrease in global fish numbers as well as the increased awareness of plastic pollution in the ocean and the tendency of plastic microbes to enter the human body through the food chain.
The series B may be the first nine-digit round for a company in the alternative seafood space but Wildtype is not the only corporate-backed operator in the sector, which includes Gathered Foods, New Wave Foods and Shiok Meats.
Wildtype said the series B round boosted its total funding to over $120m. Spark Capital led its $3.5m seed round in 2018, investing with Root Ventures, Mission Bay Capital and various individuals, before CRV, Maven Ventures, Spark Capital and Root Ventures added $12.5m in series A funding the following year.
Photo courtesy of Wildtype.
