BlueNalu, a leading innovative food company producing seafood directly from fish cells based in San Diego, California, today announced the successful completion of its $20 million Series A round of funding. This financing will enable BlueNalu to develop a good manufacturing practices (GMP) pilot production facility in San Diego, expand its world-class team, implement strategic alliances for global operations and distribution, and prepare for its market launch. The Series A round is co-led by Stray Dog Capital, CPT Capital, New Crop Capital, and Clear Current Capital, each of which participated in BlueNalu's seed round. BlueNalu secured $4.5 million in 2018 and has attracted investors from 11 nations to date demonstrating global interest in the disruptive potential for the company. New investors to this round include KBW Ventures, led by Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud. KBW Ventures supports innovative companies like BlueNalu that have tremendous potential for growth, and can sustainably feed the world. BlueNalu's A round attracted a significant number of strategic investors that provide a broad range of expertise and infrastructure in supply chain, operations, sales, marketing and distribution. The strategic investors include global supply chain leaders that will provide guidance and raw material expertise to BlueNalu. These include Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aquafeed, and Griffith Foods, a global product development partner to the food industry, with expertise in market insights, food science, culinary and sensory optimization. Strategic investors also include organizations with expertise in operations, sales, and distribution, including: Pulmuone, a leader in healthy lifestyle and sustainable food products with distribution in Asia and North America; Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, a global investor and supplier of goods and services, including foods; Rich Products Ventures, the Corporate Venture arm of Rich Products Corporation, a leading multinational supplier of icings, cakes, pizza, desserts, appetizers and various bakery products, and which has a growing line of brands in the value-added seafood category. "BlueNalu has made considerable progress toward bringing cell-based seafood products to the world," said Lou Cooperhouse, president and CEO of BlueNalu. "We have designed and executed a platform technology in which we will ultimately offer a broad array of sustainable cell-based seafood products to consumers, and our team has been extremely focused on implementing systems and processes that will be needed for cost-effective, large-scale production. We are extremely thankful to the committed group of visionaries who participated in our earlier financing round and have invested again in this round; and we are eager to form partnerships with these five strategic investors, so that we can efficiently commercialize and launch our cell-based seafood products in nations around the world." "BlueNalu has demonstrated global leadership in cell-based seafood, and has the team, expertise, strategy and networks that are key to its success," said Chuck Laue, co-founder and chair of Stray Dog Capital. "As global demand for seafood continues to increase, and our supply continues to be compromised, we are excited at the potential for BlueNalu to play a significant role in feeding the planet in the decades to come."
