Korean startup CellQua secures seed investment from Sopoong Ventures to develop Aquaculture Cultured Meat

CellQua, a Korean startup specializing in aquaculture cultured meat, has secured seed investment from an impact investor, Sopoong Ventures. The company, founded in August 2021 by Lee Sang-yoon, a Ph.D. in Fisheries Science, and Lee Sang-yeop, a computer vision engineer, uses aquatic animal cells to develop cultured meat. The company has secured six types of aquatic animal cells, including eel, squid, and loach, and is actively developing cultured meat using these cells.

In addition to cell culture technology essential for cultured meat production, CellQua has secured source technology necessary for developing cell culture medium. The company has completed patent applications for ‘cell separation and culture method specialized for aquatic animals’ and ‘development of additives to replace fetal bovine serum’ and has successfully developed its culture medium.

The co-CEOs of CellQua stated that they founded the company to address the problem of marine resources being destroyed by overfishing and pollution caused by microplastics and wastewater. The company aims to commercialize cell culture products by 2025 and to continue securing cell culture technology and materials from non-species aquatic animal cells.

With the seed investment from Sopoong Ventures, CellQua plans to build a system to automate and simplify the manufacturing process and to secure additional human resources. Jo Yoon-min, a partner of Sopoong Ventures, stated that CellQua was selected for their climate technology-specific accelerating program due to their technical team’s expertise in developing their cultured meat, producing a cultured meat prototype, and possessing molecular biological analysis equipment.

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