Led · Equity · Oct 2025

Founded in 2009 by Pål Bakken, SeaForester develops and deploys seaforestation techniques to bring back disappearing seaweed forests along temperate coastlines. Operating from Portugal and Norway, the company builds kelp-nursery systems, replants native kelp, and monitors recovery using satellite imagery, ROVs, and eDNA analysis. Restored kelp forests improve biodiversity, support fisheries, buffer wave energy to curb coastal erosion, and sequester carbon. SeaForester collaborates with research institutions, governments, and commercial partners across Europe and Australia, and counts Nestlé Purina PetCare Europe, Deloitte Portugal, Thai Union Group PCL, Torq Surfboards, 50 Degrees North, FlyOzone, and Estée Lauder among its corporate partners. The company reports widespread global loss of seaweed forests due to pollution, over-grazing, coastal development, and warming oceans, and positions its solution as critical for ecosystem stability and climate regulation. A recent €1.6 million capital infusion strengthens its balance sheet and will fund technique refinement, field work, and expansion of industrial partnerships.

Led · Equity · Oct 2023

Seaweed Solutions cultivates seaweed with fully integrated seed and seedling production in Trondheim and seawater operations at Frøya. The company aims to ramp up production and become one of Europe’s leading seaweed companies. Management has appointed Ole Christian Norvik as CEO; he brings more than 20 years of aquaculture experience. The board was strengthened with three new members with industry and investment backgrounds. Seaweed Solutions has invested €24.5 million in research and development since inception. The company says the new capital will support expansion of farmed seaweed production to deliver sustainable food and feedstock at scale.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2023

Oceanium is listed in the article with industry tags including agriculture, beauty, FMCG, food industry and manufacturing. The article reports the company raised $2.6 million in a financing round announced on 09 September 2023. The round was led by Builders Vision and joined by the World Wildlife Fund, Green Angel Syndicate/Green Angel Ventures, BDT & MSD Partners and the Sustainable Finance Initiative. The coverage does not describe Oceanium's core product, business model, or future plans. No operating metrics, valuation, founding year, or location were provided in the article. Oceanium develops a proprietary biorefinery and processing model to convert cultivated seaweed into multiple products, including plant-based food ingredients and feedstock for biodegradable packaging alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. The company’s technical refining method is designed to serve the emerging sustainable algae farming industry by creating value from marine algae across applications. Oceanium plans to use new capital to scale its cultivated algae processing capacity and commercialise its biorefinery model. The firm emphasises regenerative sourcing and aims to help reduce land and resource inputs compared with conventional food and feed production. Oceanium works with conservation partners such as WWF, the Safe Seaweed Coalition and Seaweed for Europe to guide industry foundations and environmental stewardship. The company frames its expansion as both economically and environmentally transformative for a nascent seaweed sector.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2023

Ocean Rainforest develops and operates open-ocean kelp cultivation systems and produces kelp products across the value chain. Headquartered in the Faroe Islands with a U.S. subsidiary in Southern California, the company has operated first-of-its-kind offshore systems since 2010 and is one of the largest commercial seaweed cultivators based in Europe. Its California subsidiary recently obtained an R&D permit for seaweed cultivation in federal waters, a milestone toward commercial-scale production and processing. Ocean Rainforest grows Macrocystis pyrifera and plans to scale offshore operations, processing pilot biomass for target markets such as biostimulants and functional feed ingredients. The company is testing automation, partial-harvest techniques, upwelling-enabled system design, and automated monitoring in partnership with other MARINER awardees to advance economically feasible open-ocean cultivation. Ocean Rainforest grows and processes macroalgae using a proprietary open-ocean cultivation system proven in the North Atlantic and Pacific. It is among the largest commercial seaweed cultivators in Europe and has obtained the first-ever offshore seaweed cultivation permit in US federal waters offshore Santa Barbara, California. The company produces giant kelp for functional food and feed markets and has supplied fermented kelp to Danish feed producer European Protein; aquafeed producer Aller Aqua has trialled its kelp as a salmon feed additive. Ocean Rainforest leverages existing facilities in the Faroe Islands and operates in California while pursuing expansion across the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Rim. The company aims to commercialize cultivation and processing for food, feed, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, biomaterials, beverages, texturing, and medical devices and to work with local partners to replicate its model in Europe and North America. The recent funding will support scaling production, accelerating product and market development, and expanding operations in both the Faroe Islands and California. Ocean Rainforest builds offshore seaweed cultivation systems and designs harvest and processing facilities aimed at reducing storm losses and heavy manual labour. The team farms multiple species of native seaweeds to guard against monoculture. The company secured $1.5 million in funding led by WWF (which invested $850,000), with the remainder from existing Faroese backers and board members including Olavur Gregersen, to scale its operations. WWF described the investment as part of a conservation finance and impact‑investment strategy to relieve environmental pressures from food, fiber, and fuel demand and said it plans further investments in the farmed seaweed value chain. Ocean Rainforest has also been tapped by ARPA‑E to join a three‑year open‑ocean giant kelp cultivation project in California with Primary Ocean and Hortimare, a project that faces different coastal regulatory challenges than the Faroes. Investors have expressed interest in seaweed applications such as feed supplements to reduce cattle methane emissions.