Sea6 raises $9 mn in Series B funding

Bengaluru-based ocean farming startup Sea6 Energy on Wednesday said that it has raised $9 million in Series B funding led by Netherlands-based Aqua-Spark.

The Singapore-based Silverstrand Capital was another company participated in this fund round. The company will be using funds for financing of additional SeaCombine systems to increase supply of seaweed raw material and expanding Sea6's processing capacity with additional facilities to produce Sea6's agricultural biostimulant and animal health products. Sea6 had earlier received an investment from Tata Capital Innovation Fund in 2015 as part of their Series A funding.

Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, co-founders of Aqua-Spark, said: "Investing in seaweed production has been a priority for us since we launched in 2015 but, until now, we hadn't come upon an operation that was both economically viable and was able to produce at scale. Sea6's first-of-its-kind innovation is well-positioned to impact how we farm seaweed and its utilization across industries. The company's approach impressed us from the start, and we're eager to integrate them into our portfolio and begin to work together."

Founded in 2010 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras), the company has developed the proprietary SeaCombine, a fully mechanized cultivation system that can simultaneously harvest and replant seaweed in deep ocean waters, enabling cost competitive production at scale.