Germany: EIB provides Oceanloop with €35 million for its sustainable indoor shrimp farming technology

This article is published in association with European Investment Bank.

• The Munich-based food-tech company offers a high-quality, sustainable, and environmentally friendly alternative to imports from outside the EU
• The EIB’s €35 million venture-debt investment is backed by the European Union’s InvestEU guarantee programme.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a €35 million loan to German aquaculture technology start-up Oceanloop to help growing its business in Germany and expanding it to Gran Canaria, Spain. The EIB`s venture-debt investment will also enable the Munich-based company to accelerate the development of the technology for its sustainable recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for indoor farming.

The EIB loan will support the company’s expansion by funding two key phases: Oceanloop will invest the EIB loan in expanding its existing RDI farm in Kiel from 5 tonnes per year to 60 tonnes per year, and it will construct the first-of-a-kind large-scale in-land farm for white leg shrimp in Gran Canaria, with an annual capacity of 2,000 tonnes per year.

Founded in Munich in 2012, Oceanloop is a German food-tech company that operates two pilot stage innovative land-based shrimp farms in Kiel and Munich, supplying premium-quality shrimp through its sister company Honest Catch to restaurants, supermarkets and consumers directly. The company offers a high-quality, sustainable, traceable and animal welfare compliant alternative to imports from outside the EU. With Oceanloop technology farmers can control every parameter to improve efficiency and the use of natural resources. In addition, Oceanloop is working with digital technologies such as computer vision and AI to detect biomass and stress levels in real time to ensure a better animal welfare.

The white-leg shrimp is the most farmed seafood species in the world with more than 5 million tonnes produced annually due to its popularity in all kitchens of the world and its beneficial health aspects. The EU is mostly dependent on imports of shrimp from various countries in the world. Oceanloop’s self-developed land-based farming technology sets a new standard in quality, sustainability and productivity, contributing to the growing demand for climate-friendly protein sources. Its software-controlled artificial ecosystems are modular, scalable, and location-independent.

The company’ circular economy efforts aim at reducing waste through vapor-thermal carbonization to produce a bio-coal based fertilizer, and soil enhancer and anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. The company also plans to produce renewable energy for self-consumption with a wind turbine and solar panels.

“The European Investment Bank supports European tech pioneers with European ambitions that push forward innovative solutions. Oceanloop is a perfect example of our commitment to help start-ups and scale-ups in their growth phase with the right financing solutions”, said EIB Vice-President Nicola Beer. “Developed here in Europe, their innovative technology opens new ways to produce seafood environmentally friendly by integrating new technologies in their aquaculture-business. The reduction of water-usage and CO2-emissions supports preserving the environment while producing protein rich high-quality seafood on land.” 

 “While the demand for sustainably produced animal proteins will increase significantly in the coming years, their sources are particularly at risk today. Decades of overfishing and an unsustainable aquaculture industry that cannot be controlled in times of climate change are leading to an increasing risk of supply chain disruptions to Europe. We are thrilled that the EU has recognized this and is helping us to bring our innovative technology to industrial-scale commercialization.”, said Oceanloop’s founder & CEO Fabian Riedel.

The EIB loan is supported by the InvestEU programme, which aims to trigger more than €372 billion in additional investment in new technologies until 2027. The deal is aligned with the InvestEU objective of promoting research, development and innovation.

Background information

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Its key priorities are climate and the environment, development, innovation and skills, small and medium companies (SMEs), infrastructure and cohesion. It works closely with other EU institutions to foster European integration, promote the development of the European Union and support EU policies in more than 140 countries worldwide.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investments for the European Union’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments currently available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

EIB venture debt is a quasi-equity investment product suitable for early and growth stage ventures, combining a long-term loan with an instrument linking the return to the performance of the company. Since 2015, the EIB has invested €6 billion in Venture Debt, backing over 200 companies and realising over 50 exits. With the backing of InvestEU, the EIB aims to support European ventures and scale-ups in the cleantech, deep-tech and life sciences sectors.

Oceanloop is an aquaculture technology company with two innovative operational land-based shrimp farms in Munich and Kiel, Germany. Oceanloop farms enable the production of high-quality, antibiotic-free and sustainable seafood proteins anywhere in the world. The Oceanloop platform technology is species-independent, modular, software-controlled and scalable. Oceanloop significantly reduces its use of resources and environmental footprint compared to conventional farms. As a worldwide pioneer in recirculating aquaculture technology, Oceanloop’s vision is to build sustainable land-based fish and shrimp farms around the world and thus contribute to the decarbonization of the food industry.