🐋 Ocean 14 Capital expands fund past its €150 million target
🐋 Ocean 14 Capital expands fund past its €150 million target
PLUS: The mystery behind sperm whales dancing in sargassum, and Solarvest receives approval for algal media patent.
"We noticed that people in Iceland and Greenland were remarkably free from the health problems prevalent in Western countries. Upon investigating their lifestyle, we discovered their high consumption of seafood and, particularly, seaweed." — Mikael Ohlin, President/CEO Algine Plus
Dear algae technologists - hello and welcome to the Paxtier Report!
To start the email this week, check out these stunning photos of a Sperm Whale dancing and moving under a sargassum bloom. You can find out more in Oceanographic’s superb article HERE.
In today’s report…
Markets: 🌊 Finnish company Marimekko partners with Origin by Ocean.
Deals: 🤝 Ocean 14 Capital expands seafood investment fund past its EUR 150 million target.
Movers and Shakers: 📈 Bionema launches seven new biostimulant products.
Around the web: 🌎 Marine mammals have started to attack people - is it a result of microalgae?
Markets and Investing
✂️Algae Market Snippets
Some big moves in recent weeks…
General
💸 Ocean 14 Capital expands seafood investment fund past its EUR 150 million target (Read more HERE).
🌱 Thai Union launches Innovation Challenge (Read more HERE).
Macroalgae
🤝 Finnish company Marimekko partners with Origin by Ocean (Read more HERE).
🏛️ New government program to combat sargassum will keep Mexican Caribbean beaches cleaner than ever (Read more HERE).
😋 East Devon seaweed firm among world-class Great Taste winners (Read more HERE).
🥣 USA’s biggest poke chain launches vegan ‘seafood’ (Read more HERE).
🤝 CJ Cheiljedang sells off Chinese subsidiary to expand focus on K-food business (Read more HERE).
🧼 MACK packages refill cleaning products in plant-based film from Notpla (Read more HERE).
🍔 The Earthshot Prize team up with Youtube’s Sorted Food to serve the first-ever Earthshot Burger - featuring Notpla’s packaging (Read more HERE).
🌱 Appeal hearing for Car-y-Mor licensing conditions (Read more HERE).
📈 Swedish entrepreneur set to launch nutritional supplements line, Algine Plus, in United States (Read more HERE).
🌱 New garden fertiliser business builds on P.E.I. family's interest in seaweed (Read more HERE).
🥗 Atlantic Sea Farms launches spicy Gochujang Seaweed salad (Read more HERE).
📈 Agrifoodtech funding in the Nordics goes upstream… and under the sea. Featuring Seaweed Solutions (Read more HERE).
🤝 Seaweed products from Korean UNESCO biodiversity spot to feature both MSC and ASC ecolabels (Read more HERE).
🌱 Bionema launches seven new biostimulant products (Read more HERE).
🌱 OceanHub Africa welcomes 8 start-ups driving change. Featuring multiple algae teams (Read more HERE).
🌱 PANGAIA, C16 Biosciences, and Haeckels have joined forces to create the REWILD Body Block (Read more HERE).
🖌️ Japanese paint giant creates coating to enhance seaweed beds growth (Read more HERE).
💸 The Scottish Association For Marine Science has received a £199k grant from The Coop Group and Coop Foundation's Carbon Innovation Fund (Read more HERE).
🌱 JBE announced the latest update on J Blue Credits (Read more HERE).
🌱 Horizon Seaweed is the new brand identity for New Wave Foods Ltd (Read more HERE).
🏆 The 5 finalists for the 2023 Horizon Prize: featuring seaweed plastic producers, Seaweedtama Biopac Indonesia (Read more HERE).
🌱 Sumitomo Corporation selects AWS to drive its digital transformation which includes a role in calculating blue carbon in seaweed (Read more HERE).
💊 Marinomed Biotech AG: M8 Pharmaceuticals obtains market authorization for Carragelose nasal spray in Mexico (Read more HERE).
Microalgae
🤝 KDHE and KDWP announce nine active blue-green algae advisories (Read more HERE).
🟢 Solarvest receives approval for its Algal Juice Media patent (Read more HERE).
🟢 NZ project focuses on solar and microalgae farms instead of housing development (Read more HERE).
🟢 Nutraceutical brand Greenfilled upgrades to more sustainable packaging (Read more HERE).
🟢 YSG will participate at the World Congress of Dermatology, with two major brands - including Galénic's ALGAE-TIDE (Read more HERE).
🧱 Prometheus Materials’ bio-cement and bio-concrete achieves 12x the sound absorption of traditional concrete in ASTM testing (Read more HERE).
🐦Tweets of the week
🔥 What else was hot in algae this week?
General
📝 The European Commission released the final report of the “Algae and Climate” study for animal feed (Read more HERE).
Macroalgae
🌱 Seaweed-based plastic film that doesn’t disrupt the production lines – iCAST & FlexSea (Read more HERE).
🏆 Marinova named Health & Wellness Ingredient Innovator of the Year 2023 (Read more HERE).
⛓️ A simple seaweed value chain by Macro Oceans (Read more HERE).
🏆 Students and graduates shine in national design competition - featuring seaweed furniture (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Sustainable biorefining and bioprocessing of green seaweed (Ulva spp.) for the production of edible (ulvan) and non-edible (polyhydroxyalkanoate) biopolymeric films (Read more HERE).
📷 Anna Atkins: pioneering botanical photographer who captured algae and ferns in ghostly blue images (Read more HERE).
📝 Charities publish guidelines for UK's seaweed sector (Read more HERE).
🖥️ Using machine learning to integrate mangrove restoration with sustainable aquaculture intensification (Read more HERE).
🌱 Study looks at ways to protect native seaweed species in Kona (Read more HERE).
🌱 How a Korean immigrant beat the odds to go from farmers market to US household brand name (Read more HERE).
🌱 Startup Marvel Labs uses 3D printing to capture carbon with algae and coffee grounds (Read more HERE).
🏘️ This Mexican entrepreneur builds houses out of bricks made from invasive seaweed. Then he gives them away (Read more HERE).
🐄 Quantifying and mitigating methane emissions from pastoral dairy systems is challenging (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Past climate-driven range shifts structuring intraspecific biodiversity levels of the giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) at global scales (Read more HERE).
🌱 Going green: Could seaweed be the answer to a healthier planet? Whaling Museum finds out (Read more HERE).
💰 Alaska’s newest gold rush: Seaweed (Read more HERE).
🌿 ARPA-E MARINER program performer, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ multi-species seaweed farm in Kodiak, Alaska, is the “first seaweed farm to successfully grow two species of seaweed simultaneously” (Read more HERE).
🌿 Ocean Harvest Technology (OHT) has worked with the Climate Neutral Group (CNG) to calculate the carbon footprint from the sourcing, processing and distribution of its OceanFeed product - using 1 tonne of OceanFeed seaweed blend in animal feeds could reduce carbon emissions by over 10 tonnes of CO2-equivalent (Read more HERE).
🛰️ Precision Aquaculture drone mapping of the spatial distribution of seaweed biomass and carrageenan (Read more HERE).
📝 The final part of the 2022 Agrifutures seaweed project has been published: "Purchasing guide for safe seaweed food products"(Read more HERE).
🌱 EDF’s tour of GreenWave highlights aquaculture’s potential (Read more HERE).
📽️ Forensic Carbon Accounting: Assessing the role of seaweeds in atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (Read more HERE).
Microalgae
🎬 Stephen Mayfield: algae storyteller (Read more HERE).
🟢 Diving deep: Unveiling the secrets of microalgae to cope with environmental challenges (Read more HERE).
🐋 Marine mammals have started to attack people - is it a result of microalgae? (Read more HERE).
🪐 Research explores using algae to grow plants in outer space (Read more HERE).
🟢 The 8th regional spirulina industry report covering the globe (Read more HERE).
🟢 Cyanobacteria’s game of blooms: fast track or endurance run? (Read more HERE).
📝 (Paper) Assemblage patterns of microalgae along the upstream to downstream gradient of the Okavango Delta: Abundance, taxonomic diversity, and functional diversity (Read more HERE).
💼 Jobs
🌊 Macro Oceans and Industrial Plankton are hiring scientists! Check out the positions at Paxtier's algae job board HERE.
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That’s all folks!
Thanks again for joining us this week. Hope you have a great day and stay tuned for more algae tech updates soon!
Best,
Peter