The Black Cod Company receives European funding to continue its startup

The Black Cod Company (BCC), the fish farming venture set in the Netherlands to bring black cod, or sablefish, to European markets, announced yesterday it has been granted a EUR 475,000 subsidy from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) to support initial grow out.

The funds, the company added in its announcement via its LinkedIn page, come shortly after another subsidy of EUR 200,000 from ZiS (Zeeland in Stroomversnelling—grants that can be applied for for feasibility studies and explorations), made possible by Provincie Zeeland for the establishment of the hatchery.

"Such support for our innovative sustainable local production compounds the early stage investments made by AquaFounders Capital and Impuls Zeeland's InnoGo! Fund, and strengthens the case for the current fundraising aiming to enable the first commercial scale production of Black Cod in the EU!," the company stated.

Located in Kamperland, Zeeland, the Netherlands, The Black Cod Company is the latest venture of AquaFounders Capital, the development platform of land-based aquaculture entrepreneurs Ohad Maiman and Thue Holm, who, in parallel, are also developing another project, Farm in a Box—a modular, prefab solution for sustainable land-based fish farming using Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS)—, which has just announced its first market-ready product.

As BCC noted, in addition to AquaFounders Capital's investment, in May of last year, the land-based farming company, developed to focus on full-cycle black cod production, also secured an investment from the InnoGo! Fund that allowed them to take a further step in their development, starting the import and acclimation of broodstock.

"The Black Cod Company is taking shape!"

Well-known land-based aquaculture pioneers—Ohad Maiman is the founder of The Kingfish Company and Thue Holm is the co-founder of Atlantic Sapphire—, the promoters of The Black Cod Company chose this species because, as Maiman explained to WeAreAquaculture in an interview, they have the conviction that the best use of RAS or land-based technology is to aim for the trifecta of high-value species that works well in RAS, deployed in an area where it's not otherwise available.

"The experience I had with kingfish is that yellowtail was primarily used as sushi sashimi in Japanese cuisine, but we were able to get chefs to experiment with it and end up using it as a central dish. So, I think that once we produce here and work with local chefs, we'll probably end up expanding the use of it, but the base case is replacing imports for current users," he then said.

Now, in a LinkedIn post, commenting on the news of this new funding from EMFAF, Maiman recalled that experience again, comparing it, once more, with his current role as an entrepreneur at The Black Cod Company.

"One of the most exhilarating moments as an entrepreneur is to see an idea that you start as a PowerPoint becoming a reality," he wrote. "10 years ago as Founder/CEO of The Kingfish Company I experienced that excitement for the first time as we were repurposing a similar size building. And that feeling doesn't get old," Maiman added.

"The Black Cod Company is taking shape!" the company wrote at the beginning of the funding announcement. "The Black Cod Company, here we go!" added co-founder Ohad Maiman later.