Oceano Fresco Growth IV

Oceano Fresco is a shellfish aquaculture company that aims to feed the world in a sustainable way.

This is the fourth Oceano Fresco Growth campaign after successfully raising 750.000€ in the first, second, and third campaigns for cultivation, operations, and sales.

Now, the funds raised through this fourth campaign will be used for Marketing & R&D:

• Preparation of Oceano Fresco's market entry in Portugal and Spain;
• Creation and execution of Oceano Fresco's branding project, including packaging, new product development, claims, certifications, point of sale materials, and website;
• Product studies, nutritional information, shelf life, food preservation technologies;
• Studies and mapping of the sustainability plan for the company.

The Growth series is meant to finance projects that enhance the growth of the company's production in order to enter the market with a larger sales scale.

The company has raised 1.80 million euros through GoParity's investor community since its first campaign in January 2020.

The amount raised in Oceano Fresco I, II, III, IV, V, and VI campaigns (730,000€) was used to co-finance the installation of the world's first open sea clam farm in Alvor. The clams are suspended in the open sea where they can grow in their natural environment and in a sustainable way.

The amount raised in Oceano Fresco Innovation I, II, and III campaigns (500,000€) was used to co-finance two research and development (R&D) projects focused on the cultivation of clams and one project in the area of food innovation. The R&D projects in the areas of genetics and pathology are highly innovative worldwide, leading to two incentives totaling 1.4 million. The food innovation project aims to develop new products and packaging to create value and promote sustainable clam consumption.

In August 2020, the company started clam seed production at a Biomarine Center in Nazaré, a pioneering project in Europe, which included the bivalve hatchery, a laboratory with R&D and offices. In June of the same year, it completed the installation of the open sea farm in Alvor, with an area of 100 hectares and the capacity to produce 600 tons of clams per year, thus achieving total control of the production cycle of this bivalve. The year 2021 marked the start of the first production with the hatchery managing to produce more than 50 million clam seeds and these same clams growing to adulthood well and fast in the open sea and with very positive reactions from customers.

Oceano Fresco continues to grow. In 2021, Oceano Fresco doubled the number of employees, creating a team of people composed of several nationalities and talents with a great passion in common: to contribute to the sustainability of the Oceans. In 2022, Oceano Fresco announced the new Board of Directors, which includes experts in various fields that contribute to the vision of innovation and growth for a sustainable Blue Economy. It also built the new boat 'Oceano Fresco l' and the Operations Center in Nazaré. In the hatchery at Biomarine Center, 38 million seeds were cultivated in the last 6 months (November-April). To accompany this growth and innovation, Oceano Fresco has a new office at University NOVA SBE in Carcavelos (Lisbon) to create value for its clients, consumers, and stakeholders.