BASF Venture Capital and Aqua-Spark have agreed to invest in Sea6 Energy Pvt. Ltd, production, and processing of tropical red seaweed company. It was founded in 2010 and is located in Bangalore, India.
Also, Tata Capital Innovations Fund and other existing investors will participate. Thus, Sea6 Energy will complete its Series B transaction of INR 1402 million (about $18.5 million) in total.
To sum up, Sea6 Energy has adapted its cultivation technology to the conditions in deeper water and adverse weather conditions. Besides, it covers both parts of the value chain with its integrated business model.
According to BASF Venture Capital, just a small proportion of the commercially offered seaweed comes from wild collections. Under suitable conditions, at least six harvests per year are possible.
In more detail, nearly 35 million tons of seaweed were produced in 2019, about half of which is red seaweed. The market volume for seaweed products was almost $17 billion in 2020.
Regarding this, Markus Solibieda, Managing Director of BASF, said: "With its extensive experience in the field of biotechnology, the team has created very good upstream conditions for cultivating red seaweed as biomass on a large scale. While also demonstrating success downstream through its biorefinery."
"Sea6 has made great progress over the past year, and we are excited to continue to support the company. We believe Sea6's seaweed cultivation technology is a real game-changer in the industry. Making a variety of applications of red seaweed possible on a commercial scale," Aqua-Spark managing partners Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, added.
On the other hand, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, CEO and co-founder of Sea6 Energy: "Our vision is to be able to offer red seaweed biomass and products on a large scale sustainably and reliably. Thanks to our patented mechanized cultivation technology, we can produce high-quality biomass on large scale at competitive pricing. It can enable products like Bioplastics and Biofuels as well."
Sea6 Energy has set up a fully owned subsidiary that carries out commercial seaweed farming in Bali. Sea6 operates various plants in Tuticorin, India, for the further processing of red seaweed for different applications.
The company produces biostimulants for use in agriculture and shrimp farming that increase resistance to disease and stress. Moreover, works on the development of bioplastics and biofuels based on red seaweed.
In addition, Sea6 Energy has developed a proprietary process that increases the shelf life of red seaweed from one to two days to up to 60 days. This facilitates the transport of fresh red seaweed. Those only can other be transported over longer distances once it has been dried.
