© Atlantic Fish Co.
Atlantic Fish Co, a pioneering start-up in the cultivated seafood sector, has been awarded a $305,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the NSF. The non-dilutive funding will support the company’s efforts to develop scalable production of premium white fish using cellular agriculture.
Founded in 2020, Atlantic Fish is focused on cultivating black sea bass, aiming to replicate the taste, texture and nutritional profile of wild-caught fillets. The company grows fish from harvested muscle cells, using bioreactors to deliver nutrients and scaffolding materials to support tissue formation.
“This NSF award is more than just capital – it's validation from rigorous scientific reviewers. It represents the culmination of over a year of foundational research and development and proposal development,” said Doug Grant, co-founder and chief executive officer of Atlantic Fish in a press release.
In 2023, Atlantic Fish developed a prototype for cultivated black sea bass in collaboration with the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab (NCFIL). The project focused on establishing cell lines that grow in liquid suspension, a step toward scalable production. According to the company, this approach could help reduce the carbon footprint associated with traditional seafood harvesting, which is estimated to produce over 700 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually.
The new grant brings the company’s total non-dilutive funding to over $700,000 – an important milestone during a capital-constrained period for early-stage deep tech start-ups. Atlantic Fish previously received SBIR funding from the US Department of Agriculture.
