Oceanium is developing an all-natural, home compostable bio-packaging material to replace packaging which has no end-of-life solutions.
Oceanium, a UK-based seaweed processing, food and material innovation business, has announced the close of a Seed II Round worth ~ £2m ($2.7M, €2.3M) led by Green Angel Syndicate and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Oceanium will use the funds to scale up its proprietary biorefinery and processing model and simultaneously help to grow the nascent sustainable seaweed farming industry.
“The caliber of investors in this round of funding highlights the opportunity and obligation we have to create a market for sustainably farmed seaweed and drive systemic change by providing regenerative food and material sources,” said Oceanium founder Karen Scofield Seal. “We will continue to work closely with regional and global conservation partners including WWF, Safe Seaweed Coalition and Seaweed for Europe to ensure we lay the best possible foundations for what will be a transformative industry, in terms of both economic, societal and environmental impact.”
Sustainable Seaweed Farming
Seaweed farming is a regenerative form of aquaculture that absorbs CO₂ and nitrogen, increases biodiversity, and can generate additional income and livelihoods along coastal regions.
Oceanium’s innovative refinement processes seaweed for applications including the production of home-compostable packaging materials, as well as climate-friendly food ingredients like protein, fiber and bioactive nutraceuticals.
Green Angel Syndicate and WWF as anchor investors are joined by SyndicateRoom, Glass Wall Syndicate members, Kingfisher Capital, an UHNW family office and “green” angel investors from Europe, the UK and the US. The round follows early investment from ocean impact VCs Katapult Ocean and Sky Ocean Ventures, as well as Scottish Enterprise.
“Oceanium’s pioneering expansion of processing capacity for farmed seaweed is an exciting step for the industry,” said Paul Dobbins from WWF. “Brought to scale, cultivated seaweed could help achieve conservation goals by providing a nutritious source of food and livestock feed with less land and resource inputs. Developing an innovative biorefinery process will also help create feedstock for biodegradable packaging alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.”
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