Description

Oceano Fresco is a shellfish aquaculture company that aims to feed the world sustainably.

This is the promotor's 14th Goparity campaign and the first campaign of the Oceano Fresco Farm series. Along with the Growth campaigns, this new line of funding aims to continue financing projects that enhance and grow the company's production.

The present campaign aims to finance the Grading Center, more specifically:

• Planning and construction of the new support center for the open sea farm in Lagos.
• Study and acquisition of equipment and consumables to ensure the proper functioning of the new grading/processing center.
• Study and acquisition of equipment to ensure the smooth running of the total operation in the open sea farm, integrating operations on the boats in the ocean with the operations of the new grading center on land.

The company has raised 2.2 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 Lagos, Algarve. The clams are suspended in the open sea, where they can grow sustainably in their natural environment.

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 2.0 million. The food innovation project aims to develop new products and packaging to create value and promote sustainable clam consumption.

The amount raised in Oceano Fresco Growth I, II, III, and IV campaigns (1.000.000€)  for cultivation, operations, sales, marketing, and R&D. The Growth series meant to finance projects that enhance the growth of the company's production to enter the market with a larger sales scale.

In August 2020, the company started clam seed production at the 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 Lagos, 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 are growing well in the open sea.

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 feeding the world sustainably. In 2022, Oceano Fresco announced the new Advisory Board, 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, seeds were cultivated as planned. 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.

The Impact

Direct 

• Promotion of innovation in the industry, in terms of processes and technology, through research and development.

Indirect

• Promotion of the marine ecosystem: a sustainable alternative to intensive fishing as a source of protein, the sustainable production of clams contributes to the restoration of biodiversity and marine stocks. The bivalves’ cultivation occurs without artificial feed and requires low energy consumption, filtrate the water and improving its quality and absorbing CO2 to build their shells.

Impact Indicators

4

jobs created

Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals

Financial viability

Download Key Investment Information Sheet

Guarantees

Oceano Fresco's Pledge

The Promoter

About Oceano Fresco S.A.

Oceano Fresco was founded in 2015 by Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho.

The company is focused on sustainable aquaculture of high-value bivalves (European clams), using scientific research and methods, and an innovative approach in the systematic improvement of aquaculture. Funded in 2015 by Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho, the company's motto is: “we can regenerate nature if we farm and eat better”. The company is led by a Board of five Directors with scientific, financial, and business experience, including launching and scaling up of start-ups. They are supported by a growing Operational Team (43 people) covering R&D, production, and business and several Advisory Board members with world-renowned fish breeding experts.

The company has built a state-of-the-art Biomarine Center, including a hatchery, labs, and offices in central Portugal, as well as a 100-hectare sea farm off the coast of the Algarve region. With these rare and complementary assets, the company will apply advanced selection and breeding methods to native European clam species of high nutritional and market value, which are presently being replaced in the market by their low-value Asian counterparts (low organoleptic value). 

The team

Bernardo Carvalho

CEO and Managing Director

Entrepreneur and independent consultant for leading companies in agro-genetics, pharma, and banking.

Frederico Reis

CCO and Managing Director

Marketing & Sales senior executive with >15 years in FMCG, Consumer Healthcare, Electronics and food Retail across Europe.

Nuno Arantes Oliveir

Co-founder and Advisory Board Chairman

Life Science executive and entrepreneur. PhD in Genetics. MIT Portugal, NOVA-SBE. 200M Fund. Research at Univ. of California.

Olivier Cottet

Member of the Advisory Board

Plant breeding specialist. >20 years experience managing breeding programs at Syngenta.

Stan Allen

Member of the Advisory Board

Shellfish breeding specialist. Director of Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center at Virginia Institute of Marine Science (USA)

Josien Bakker

Non-executive Director Aqua Spark

Francisco Belo

Non-executive Directo, BlueCrow Capital

Rui Rodrigues

Non-executive Director, Indico Capital Partners

Business Model

Updates