SBIR grant positions Atlantic Fish Co. to advance cultivated seafood production

Raleigh sustainable food startup Atlantic Fish Co. has received a $305,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This non-dilutive funding marks another step forward in the company’s work to develop scalable production of premium white fish using cellular agriculture.

“The grant is a major achievement for us as it allows us to fund crucial work while also demonstrating that an expert panel of reviewers values our technical competence and business model,” said Trevor Ham, chief science officer of Atlantic Fish.

Ham, who is also the principal investigator for the grant, says that the support will help the company improve and validate its platform for growing fish muscle cells in a liquid suspension culture. 

This technology has the potential to offer a sustainable source of fish at a time when traditional fishing methods and a growing demand for seafood have led to global overfishing and environmental threats.

“Our technology removes most of the technical and cost barriers to the production of cultivated muscle, works across multiple species and does not require special labeling of the end product,” he said. “There are no other technologies that achieve the same level of simplicity and scalability.”

From nuggets to fillets

In 2024, the company developed the world’s first cultivated black sea bass nugget. Over the past year, it has tested multiple iterations of the nugget prototype, making several improvements along the way. Building on what it learned during that development process, the company has now developed a whole fish fillet.

“This second-generation product will allow us to capture the high end of the seafood market and is nearing market readiness,” said Ham. “We’re excited to be holding private tastings for our fillet over the next few weeks.”

Ham says that the success of cultivated meat and seafood depends on achieving price parity with existing products and developing high-quality products that attract consumers. 

Customers want products that replicate key aspects of existing products, something that has been difficult to achieve with current meat alternatives, such as plant-based products.

“This NSF SBIR allows us to attack both challenges: reducing production costs by improving the scalability of muscle cell lines and increasing product quality by having real animal muscle in the final product,” said Ham. “The grant will also allow us to work with other companies to apply our technology to their cell lines and enable the production of cultivated muscle across many different species and products.”

Building an NC support network

In 2024, the company received a $100,000 small business research loan from the North Carolina Biotech Center, which supported its work to isolate and develop its primary cell line, conduct customer discovery, develop the prototype blended fish nugget and prepare and submit grant applications, including this NSF SBIR.

“Without the NC Biotech SRL, it is difficult to imagine us reaching our current stage,” said Ham. “NCBiotech staff have consistently been very helpful, whether by introducing us to investors or providing business and technical feedback.”

The company is also supported by an SBIR matching grant through the One North Carolina program and an NC IDEA Seed grant. Additionally, close collaboration with the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab (NCFIL) in Kannapolis allowed Atlantic Fish to quickly iterate upon the prototype while remaining focused on its core suspension growth platform.

Over the next few years, Atlantic Fish plans to complete a pilot launch of its cultivated black sea bass fillets in a limited number of high-end restaurants. It then wants to scale up operations and expand to larger restaurant groups and seafood distributors.

“We will also keep working on refining the product, lowering our production costs and improving our suspension growth platform,” said Ham. “We’re very proud of how much we’ve been able to accomplish in the last three years and very excited for the future."