Oceano Fresco, a startup from Nazaré dedicated to the sustainable production of clams and other bivalves, closed a financing round of 17 million euros. The company says, in a statement released on Thursday, that the The funding is intended to “support business expansion and production capacity.”
The round included a co-investment between the Banco Português do Fomento (BPF), through a fund launched within the framework of the PRR, and Indico Capital Partners, for a total amount of 11.5 million euros. “Of the total amount, 8.05 million euros are contributed directly through the Deal-by-Deal co-investment programme of the Capitalisation and Resilience Fund and 3.45 million through the Indico Blue Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Indico Capital Partners — Venture Capital Company,” details the BPF. BlueCrow and Aqua-Spark, which had previously supported the Portuguese startup, also participated in the financing.
Bernardo Carvalho, CEO of Oceano Fresco, says that “having knowledgeable partners” who share the company’s values and vision is “as important as raising money” and highlights the support of investors in the “path” to global leadership “in regenerative bivalve aquaculture.”
The CEO of Oceano Fresco (center) with representatives of BPF and Indico Capital Partners
With clients in Portugal and Spain and the ambition to expand soon to other European markets (not specified which ones), the future objectives of Oceano Fresco, according to a note shared by investors, “improve productivity by investing in new technologies and processes to increase efficiency and reduce costsand expand operations by building new cultivation facilities, acquiring advanced equipment and expanding the offshore operations area.” The company currently has a team of 42 employees, and plans to hire between five and ten people by the end of the year.
Oceano Fresco uses aquaculture techniques to grow “high-quality” species in a “sustainable and traceable way, with a vertically integrated operation,” from nursery breeding to the development of adult clams in a marine environment. “The two native species of farmed clams, V. corrugata and R. decussatus, are initially reared in the company’s state-of-the-art maternity ward, the Oceano Fresco Biomarinho Centre in Nazaré, Portugal, before beginning their growth in the world’s first open-sea clam farm, off the coast of Lagos, in the Algarve,” the startup explains.
Source: Observadora
