Established in 2020, Aqua Cultured Foods told Green Queen it was unable to secure funding without taking on undue risk. “Despite meaningful technical and market progress, we reached a point where the timing and capital required to scale no longer matched the company’s financial reality,” co-founder and CEO Brittany Chibe told the news outlet. “We’re exploring pathways to place the assets – technology, IP, know-how, and potentially the brand – with a partner who can take it forward.”
In total, the company had raised $10 million, and was in the process of seeking funds for scale up. “[T]he bar moved,” Chibe said. “Fewer funds were writing new checks, diligence cycles got longer, and many investors prioritized their portfolio companies or later-stage companies with near-term margins, or categories perceived as less risky. Meanwhile, the capital needs to scale a novel manufacturing platform don’t pause just because the market does.”