BlueNalu

lueNalu is a startup developing cultured seafood using fish cells. The company grows the cells isolated from the fish tissue in a bioreactor with culture media and assembles them into fish products. In December 2019, the startup hosted a culinary demo of its cultured yellowtail. In October 2022, Blue Nalu announced two new technological breakthroughs–single-cell suspension and lipid-loading–which would enable highly scaled production of cultivated seafood. Further, the company plans to begin operations at its commercial facility–equipped with eight 100,000-liter bioreactors and an annual capacity of 6 million pounds of cultured seafood–in 2027.

In February 2024, BlueNalu became the first cultivated seafood company to join the National Fisheries Institute, the trade association for the US seafood industry.

Key partnerships and customers

As one of its go-to-market strategies and to accelerate the commercialization of cell-cultured meat, BlueNalu has entered into partnerships with several food manufacturers. The startup has partnered with Mitsubishi Corporation, Thai Union, Pulmuone, and Food & Life Companies to focus on the Asia-Pacific region, while the partnership with Nomad Foods focuses on Europe. Under each partnership, the companies will collaboratively conduct market research on consumer insights in the regions, examine regulatory frameworks, and explore opportunities to accelerate the launch of BlueNalu’s cultivated seafood products across the regions.

In March 2023, BlueNalu extended its partnership with Nutreco to establish a cell feed supply chain for cultivated seafood. The partnership will entail initiatives to reduce cell feed costs by moving from a pharma-grade to a food-grade ingredient supply. In November 2023, BlueNalu signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NEOM, a futuristic city in northwest Saudi Arabia that follows sustainability practices, to commercialize and distribute cultivated seafood products and enhance food security.

Funding and financials

In its latest funding round in October 2023, BlueNalu raised USD 33.5 million in series B funding with participation from Agronomics and other new and existing investors. Specific uses of the funds were not disclosed.