Portuguese seafood company Oceano Fresco secures €17M for sustainable aquaculture

Portuguese sustainable seafood company Oceano Fresco, has closed a €17 million funding round. 

Oceano Fresco is a pioneer in the sustainable cultivation of clams on a large scale. 

It avoids the major negative impacts of other forms of food production (no artificial feed or antibiotics are used, and no farm residues are produced) and promotes several positive impacts, including CO capture by the shells and enhancing biodiversity in its open-sea farm. 

Oceano Fresco has cultivated two native bivalve species cultivated — V. corrugata and R. decussatus — which were first bred in the company's state-of-the-art hatchery— the Oceano Fresco Biomarine Center in Nazaré, Portugal – before continuing their growth in the world's first open-sea clam farm off the coast of Lagos, in the Algarve.

In the Atlantic Ocean, the clams are protected by vertical lanterns suspended along longlines. They benefit from ideal conditions such as mild temperatures, an abundant natural food supply (microalgae), and constant water renewal to become fully grown, high-quality open-sea clams. e.

Indico Capital Partners led the funding, which included participation from BlueCrow, Aqua-Spark, and FdCR, a fund managed by Banco Português de Fomento. 

Bernardo Carvalho, CEO at Oceano, added: "For Oceano Fresco, having knowledgeable partners who share our values and vision is at least as important as raising money per se. With this in mind, we very gladly welcome Indico Capital Partners and Banco Português de Fomento to this adventure, just like we welcome AquaSpark's and BlueCrow's renewed support, as we continue on our path to become the world leaders in regenerative bivalve aquaculture."

Stephan de Moraes, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners, commented: 

"We are thrilled with being part of Oceano Fresco vision of creating a new sustainable aquaculture vertical that will add to the global protein increasing demand.

The demand for clams specifically far outstrips current supply and growing them sustainably and systematically makes sense at all levels."

Ana Carvalho, CEO of Banco Português de Fomento, said: 

"This is the Fund's first investment in the Blue economy, which we believe could start a cycle of BPF support for this priority sector of the national economy."

The funding will support Oceano Fresco's sales operations and the expansion of its production capacity.

Lead image: Oceano Fresco. Photo: uncredited.