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Sea6 Energy, a sustainable, large-scale, and mechanised ocean farming startup, on Wednesday said it raised $9 million in a Series B round led by the Netherlands-based Aqua-Spark — an investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture — and co-investor Singapore-based Silverstrand Capital. 

In 2015, Sea6 had received Series A funding from Tata Capital Innovation Fund.

The startup will use the new funds to finance its additional SeaCombine systems to increase the supply of seaweed raw material and expand its processing capacity with additional facilities to produce Sea6’s agricultural biostimulant and animal health products. 

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 utilisation across industries.”

“Their SeaCombine makes sustainably farming the ocean possible while capturing CO2 and transforming it into valuable products. The company’s approach impressed us from the start, and we’re eager to integrate them into our portfolio and begin to work together,” they added.

Sea6 Energy is a vertically integrated seaweed producer, processor, and developer headquartered in Bengaluru with a subsidiary in Indonesia. The startup has developed the proprietary SeaCombine — a fully mechanised cultivation system that can simultaneously harvest and replant seaweed in deep ocean waters, enabling cost-competitive production at scale. 

The company has also developed proprietary technologies to convert fresh seaweed into novel, environmentally friendly products for various industries, including agriculture, animal health, food ingredients, bioplastics, and renewable chemicals.

Founded in 2010 at IIT Madras by Sailaja Nori, Nelson Vadassery, Sowmya Balendiran, and Shrikumar Suryanarayan, the startup has been working to develop technology and products to better support the seaweed industry. It now covers the full supply chain — from farming seaweed to product development to selling to consumers.

Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Managing Director and Co-founder, Sea6 Energy, said,

“Aqua-Spark’s vision of sustainability is very well aligned with Sea6’s own vision. At Sea6 Energy, we are focused on cultivating and processing tropical seaweed species. The fact that seaweed cultivation is a very sustainable operation makes this biomass a versatile and ideal raw material that can be used for a variety of industrial purposes to greatly reduce their carbon footprint.”