ISH Lands $5M Round to Accelerate Plant-Based Seafood Innovation

Plant-based seafood maker ISH Food Company has raised a more than $5 million seed round that will fuel its product innovation and expand its foodservice partnerships with colleges, universities and restaurants.

What is ISH?

Founded in 2020 by entrepreneur Bernard David, the Delaware-based company produces a line of sustainable, plant-based seafood alternatives aimed at restructuring the food system in pursuit of a “healthier world.” Since its launch, the brand has taken a “whole system” approach toward driving improvements through its three pillars – human health, ecological health and community health – by working to create innovative, sustainable and healthy plant-based products using ingredients such as coconut and algae to mimic the taste and texture of shrimp and other seafood.

ISH launched its flagship product, dubbed Shrimpish, in 2022. According to a study published by the Ecological Society of America, farming shrimp, the most popular seafood item in the U.S., creates four times more greenhouse gas emissions than beef.

“Choosing Shrimpish over traditional shrimp lowers your [carbon] footprint by 8,076 lbs of CO2,” ISH chief operating officer Christie Fleming told NOSH in an email. “This is equivalent to CO2 emissions from 11,485 miles driven in a typical U.S. car.”

Who participated in the round?

The “oversubscribed” round was led by Boston-based impact fund ACCELR8, which invests in companies working to accelerate the reduction and sequestration of greenhouse gases.

“The opportunity to support a company that’s making significant strides in providing a more environmentally friendly way to eat seafood was a huge draw for our team,” said ACCELR8 partner Justin Kern in a press release. “We believe the ISH team is uniquely positioned to make a splash in the plant-based seafood market, without sacrificing health and environmental concerns.”

Additional investors included Stray Dog Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in innovative, early-stage companies across the food, beverage and biotechnology sectors and multiple angel investors.

“ISH is helping people gain access to healthy, sustainable and delicious plant-based seafood, a market in which we see tremendous opportunity. The plant-based seafood category has the potential to make up over $500 million in sales and we’re excited to include ISH in our portfolio as this figure continues to grow.”

To date, ISH has raised a total of nearly $10 million, according to the release.

How does this fuel the plant-based seafood movement?

Though plant-based meat has ballooned over the past few years, especially through the emergence of companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, plant-based seafood remains an area with still much room for growth.

According to a 2021 market report released by Fact.MR, the global plant-based fish market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 28%, reaching a valuation of $1.3 billion by 2031. This growth is expected to be propelled by heightening environmental concerns, rapid depletion of global fish stocks and compounding problems associated with excessive meat consumption.

ISH’s competitors in the plant-based market include Plantish, which in March announced it had raised over $12 million in seed funding, which the company claims to be the largest seed round-to-date for an alternative seafood brand. The round was led by State of Mind Ventures with additional participation from Pitango Health Tech, Unovis Capital and TechAviv Founder Partners, among others.

Meanwhile, plant-based seafood was front and center at the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. Among the highlights was the debut of Konscious Foods – launched by Gardein and Yves Veggie Gourmet founder Yves Potvin – which is offering a 12-SKU line of alternative seafood products, including sushi rolls, poke bowls and onigiri. Elsewhere, Jinka showcased its alt-tuna spreads alongside its newest innovation, sea-free calamari. The new product is slated to roll out into Whole Foods nationwide over the coming months.

Looking ahead, ISH will use the new capital to expand the presence of its flagship Shrimpish product in colleges, universities and restaurants. Currently, the company has partnerships with Harvard and Amherst.

Additionally, the company will begin pushing through the additional 25 product innovations in its pipeline, including plant-based salmon, cod, crab and lobster alternatives.

“Our other products will similarly reflect a significant difference in carbon emissions when compared to traditional seafood products, making it possible for restaurants and consumers to decrease their carbon footprints without sacrificing taste or texture,” said Fleming.