Atlantic Fish

• Location: United States
• Founders: Doug Grant and Trevor Ham 
• What they do: Cultivated seafood including black sea bass
• Sub-sector: Cellular agriculture 
• Business model: End product and Ingredient

Doug Grant (Co-founder and CEO) and Trevor Ham (Co-founder and Chief Science Officer) established Atlantic Fish Co in 2022 to develop cultivated seafood with a focus on wild-caught marine white fish such as sea bass, snapper, flounder, and grouper. What’s unique about what they do? “We’ve developed proprietary technology for white fish species to adapt cells for immortalisation and suspension.” In April 2024, they unveiled the “world’s first” cultivated black sea bass. Their next milestone? Lowering the cost of cultivated seafood through the development of growth media customised for black sea bass and offering product tasting events to restaurant partners. They were the first movers in the US market for the marine whitefish segment. They took part in IndieBio’s programme in 2023.

Find out more at atlanticfish.co 

Optimized Foods

• Location: United States
• Founders: Zane Starkewolfe, Cody Yothers, Minami Ogawa, Maja Segerman Nielsen, and Lynn Hanson
• What they do: Proprietary platform for mycelium-based ingredient encapsulation and stabilisation.
• Sub-sector: Biomass fermentation, algae- and fungi-based 
• Business model: Ingredients 

The idea for Optimized Foods came from a team of founding scientists at the University of California, Davis. Together, they realised the potential for synergy by making a novel mycelium-delivery platform and developed their MycoCarrier™ technology platform. What’s unique about what they do? “Our proprietary platform allows us to harness the amazing properties of mycelium. This allows us to tune the texture, taste, and nutritional value of alternative protein products by encapsulating fats, flavours, and nutrients in our MycoCarrier™ to address a wide range of food and ingredient challenges facing the industry today.” The team took part in the Big Ideas Ventures Protein Accelerator Program in 2022.

Find out more at optimizedfoods.com

 

AlProtein

• Location: Egypt / United States
• Founders: Omar Zaghloul and Mohamed Almoatasem 
• What they do: B2B protein ingredients using microalgae and water lentils
• Sub-sector: Plant-based / Biomass fermentation, fungi- and algae-based
• Business model: Ingredients

 

Omar Zaghloul (Co-Founder and CEO) and Mohamed Almoatasem (Co-Founder and Business Development Lead) met in 2019 at Zewail City of Science and Technology where they founded a deep-tech incubation programme. Together they formed AlProtein, which develops ingredients using microalgae and water lentils, for use by plant-based meat and cheese manufacturers. What’s unique about what they do? “Our AI-powered biomanufacturing technology produces high-quality proteins at scale, replacing synthetic additives and binders, and without using any fresh water or arable land. By doing so we’re hacking unit economics to help tackle the food security crisis here in our region.” 

Find out more at alprotein.tech

 

Fisheroo

• Location: Singapore
• Founder: Aaron Chua
• What they do: Enabling technologies for cell-based meat and seafood producers
• Sub-sector: Cellular agriculture
• Business model: Enabler

Founder and CEO,  Aaron Chua, is a biotechnologist by training and worked in the cultivated industry for three years. During this time, he observed what he refers to as “significant inefficiencies in R&D,” with companies “over-saturating verticals with no clear differentiation”. Inspired by this, he established Fisheroo. The business provides enabling technologies for manufacturing companies to cultivate meat and seafood from cells in an economical and efficient way. What’s unique about what they do? “We provide solutions in underserved verticals that are cell-type and species agnostic, including cell lines, supplement and bioprocess.” Aaron and his team took part in the Big Idea Ventures accelerator programme in 2021.

Find out more and connect with Aaron Chua here on LinkedIn.

 

Friends & Family Pet Food Company

• Location: United States
• Founders: Joshua Errett, Jonny Cruz, and Dr Sarah Dodd
• What they do: Pet food made using yeast and cultivated meat
• Sub-sector: Cellular agriculture
• Business model: End consumer product

Joshua Errett (Chief Executive Officer), Jonny Cruz (Chief Operating Officer), and Dr Sarah Dodd (Chief Science Officer), co-founded Friends & Family Pet Food Company to develop a new generation of pet food using yeast and cultivated ingredients. With Joshua and Jonny coming from the pet food industry, and Sarah being a board-certified pet nutritionist, a practising vet, and an expert on formulating pet foods using alternative proteins, the team places a strong emphasis on nutrition. They use various blends of nutritional yeast to create products that meet the protein requirements for both cats and dogs, containing essential amino acids and other nutritional benefits. They have agreements with a yeast lab and co-manufacturer to produce pet ingredients they intend to patent and plan to launch in US retail stores early next year.

Find out more at friendsandfamily.pet 

 

Our new-look programme

We’re delighted to have them all on board and can’t wait to see them grow over the course of the programme.

We’ve revamped our programme this year to give participants more time, more coaching and more opportunities to take their business to the next level. We’ve extended the length of the programme from 12 weeks to five months. And we’ve introduced a kick-off week with all participants coming to Berlin for in-person introductions, ice-breakers, workshops, 121s, and industry events.

Stay tuned to follow their journey over the next five months!

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See you there!