Cargill, Aqua-Spark invest in Calysta fishmeal replacement facility
Third round of funding will speed up launch of FeedKind on a commercial scale.
Calysta, Inc. today announced it will be collaborating with Cargill in the launch of its North American manufacturing facility for its fishmeal protein replacement FeedKind.
Cargill also contributed part of Calysta's $30 million Series C funding along with the Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS) of Michigan, sustainable aquaculture investor Aqua-Spark, and Old Westbury Global Real Assets Fund LLC, accelerating new product development, commercial manufacturing and continued advances in its proprietary state-of-the-art gas fermentation platform.
With this funding, Brian Silvey, Cargill vice president, corn milling, and Edward Mikolay, MERS of Michigan senior investment officer and director of private markets, will be joining the Calysta board of directors.
“This collaboration with Cargill, a world leader in fermentation and protein production, is expected to dramatically accelerate market introduction of FeedKind protein at commercial scale,” said Alan Shaw, Calysta president and CEO.
“We are also very pleased to add Bessemer and MERS, investors who bring a long term view of capital deployment, to Calysta’s distinguished group of investors. Calysta is providing the aquaculture industry with a proprietary sustainable alternative to conventional fishmeal ingredients. This in turn addresses the widely-recognized concern about a worldwide shortage of protein, a serious potential threat to global food security.”
“Calysta brings key innovations in gas fermentation that complement Cargill’s global expertise in engineering, manufacturing and marketing,” said Cargill's Silvey.
In addition to its Calysta deal, Aqua-Spark on Tuesday announced a $2.75 million investment in halibut farmer Sogn Aqua, which will be used to scale up production to 800 tons and integrate FeedKind feed.
