Faroese seaweed producer Ocean Rainforest has secured $6.2 million (€5.8 million) in series A funding to expand its operations in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Pacific Rim, and accelerate product and market development.
Established in 2010, Ocean Rainforest is a seaweed producer and processing company with open-ocean cultivation operations in the Faroe Islands and California.
The company is among the largest commercial seaweed cultivators in Europe and has obtained the first-ever offshore seaweed cultivation permit in US federal waters offshore of Santa Barbara.
The new funding allows Ocean Rainforest to scale its seaweed production by leveraging existing facilities in the Faroe Islands and expanding its operations in California.
The funding was led by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, which invested alongside Katapult Ocean's Deep Blue fund, Walton-backed Builders Vision and the Ocean Born Foundation.
Existing shareholders World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Nordoya Ilogufelag and Twynam Invest also participated in the series A round.
“This funding will significantly expand their production into offshore waters and will be critical to meet growing market demand and to reach climate-relevant scale," said Marc von Keitz, director at the Grantham Foundation.
