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Aiming to replace traditional seafood with alternatives, the Berlin-based company Pacifico Biolabs believes it has a unique approach to creating entire muscle structures through fermentation.
While fermentation, the process of growing cells in bioreactors, is already used to make a number of alternative proteins, such as cultured meat, Zac Austin, co-founder and CEO, calls the process a “complete game-changer.”
Prior to joining Pacifico Biolabs, Austin worked at McKinsey in London as a strategy consultant. After working on the UK government’s COVID task force, he met Washington co-founder Nelson Logroño Vintimilla, who emigrated from Ecuador to Europe for graduate study in biotechnology.
“The fermentation we often hear about is better for making raw products,” Austin told TechCrunch. “Seafood is so fragmented that different technological approaches are needed to cover different types of products. We produce highly nutritious biomass and our formulation works well for white fish fillet products.
The company’s fermentation process involves the cultivation of several microorganisms, including mycelium (mushroom root), to provide nutrition, flavor and texture. Pacifico Biolabs also uses secondary flows from other food production to reduce food waste. Additionally, infrastructure represents a significant capital expenditure for fermentation, which is why the company is building a new production process.
Pacifico Biolabs launched from stealth today with $3.3 million in pre-seed funding. The round was co-led by Simon Capital and FoodLabs and included Exceptional Ventures and Sprout & About Ventures.
The startup is the latest to attract venture capital investment for alternative seafood. This is an area that saw a lot of movement in early 2023 from companies like ISH Company, New school foods, Aquatic Cultured Foods And Blue seafood. Investors also called it a year where notable progress would be prepared from alternative seafood.
Aquablurba Fish Site newsletter following investments in aquaculture and alternative seafood, reported that $808 million in venture capital across 56 rounds had been publicly announced in 2023.
As the pre-seed round suggests, Pacifico Biolabs is still in its very early stages. As such, the new capital will be used to expand the fermentation process and launch the first products to the European market following regulatory approval.
For now, the company will work on optimization and adjustments that Austin says can only be done on a larger scale. As the company grows, it will have the potential to develop its alternative seafood products at a potential 80 percent lower cost than the cheapest farmed fish, Austin said.
“It’s about creating a model that is practical and easy to scale,” he said. “It can be made at low cost, meaning it will be economically viable for everything from chicken to mayonnaise. It’s certainly part of what I would say is our 10 to 15 year plan.
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