Canada's Cascadia Seaweed achieves successful Series A funding round

British Columbia seaweed farmer Cascadia Seaweed has achieved a significant milestone with the successful first closure of its Series A funding round, raising CAD $4 million toward its CAD $7 million target.

Among the investors joining this round are WWF Impact (the World Wildlife Fund US’s impact investing arm), Vere Ventures, Potato Impact Partners, VertueLab Climate Impact Fund, Realize Impact, the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, Norfolk Green Ventures, and other strategic backers.

With the newly secured funding, Cascadia Seaweed plans to construct a commercial-scale seaweed biorefinery on Canada’s West Coast, enhance biomass production, and expand the market reach of its seaweed-based products. These include liquid kelp extracts, biostimulants, and livestock feed supplements designed to improve agricultural productivity while reducing emissions.

“We are thrilled with the support from both new and existing investors," said Michael Williamson, CEO of Cascadia Seaweed, in a press release.

“We’ve built a vertically integrated business that delivers real environmental and economic benefits, and this funding will enable us to scale up and provide surety of supply of innovative inputs to our customers while contributing to more resilient food production in North America.”

This first close of the round provides capital to propel Cascadia Seaweed forward, but additional investment room remains for qualified investors, the company said.

Based in British Columbia, Canada, Cascadia Seaweed operates in partnership with coastal First Nations in Canada, with each of its farms owned by a First Nation, with benefits flowing to those local communities.

“Cascadia’s model provides benefits to our oceans, our environment, coastal communities, and can help mitigate climate change,” said Paul Dobbins, Vice President of Impact Investing and Ecosystems Services, Aquaculture at WWF-US.

“When scaled, cultivated seaweed can also reduce the footprint of our global food system by providing a nutritious source of food and livestock feed with less land and resource inputs.”