Singapore-based Umami Meats, a foodtech firm focused on sustainable seafood, has raised US$2.4 million in a pre-seed round co-led by Better Bite Ventures and Genedant.
Photo credit: Pxhere
Umami Meats cultivates seafood by establishing production-ready cell lines from multiple fish species and leveraging its growth serum. The company says that its cultivated seafood provides equivalent nutrition to traditional seafood, and that it is safe from heavy metals, antibiotics, and microplastics.
The firm prioritizes Japanese eel, red snapper, yellowfin tuna, and grouper, as these species are overfished and demand for them continues to grow.
Mihir Pershad, CEO of Umami Meats, founded the company in 2020. He previously served as a venture partner at Early Charm Ventures and the CEO of VakSea, a company that uses insect larvae to produce proteins.
Umami Meats plans to use the funding to improve its production system.
See also: Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Singapore
“Seafood is a US$180 billion industry faced with growing global demand and supply that is increasingly volatile and under threat from climate change, overfishing, and ocean pollutants,” said Pershad.
Editing by Collin Furtado and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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