This Singaporean company creates cell-based fish that looks, feels, and tastes real

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

We are future proofing our food production system which would enable us to sustainably feed 10B individuals by 2050 with nutritious fish that we have all grown to love. Till date, the most significant achievement would be our technological development that would enable us to recreate the fish we have grown to love while being scalable at low cost, a problem that has remained unanswered until Fisheroo.

Who are you and what business did you start?

I am Aaron, a biologist by training, passionately a businessman but most importantly a great believer in enabling others to look at things from a different perspective. And through the lens of Fisheroo, I wanted to show consumers like you and I, sustainability and health from a different angle.

And without a doubt, Fisheroo has become an extension to the founders' beliefs. As a company, we are on a mission, a mission to redefine the norms of seafood production and by doing so envisions a day where we are able to provide consumers with authentic and nutritious fish using sustainable technology. But why does seafood production have to be redefined?

Well, that's because the human population is poised to reach 10B by 2050, requiring almost double the amount of animal proteins we consume today. Yet, the supply of fishes in our oceans are at critical levels whereby close to 90% of global marine fish stocks are either fully- or over-fished. And that's not all. The fishes that we have grown to love are also plagued with contaminants such as methylmercury, microplastics and parasites, significantly jeopardising our health by day. Thus, the culmination of a tip in supply-demand and incremental contamination of the fish we have grown to love has driven a need for alternative production methodologies.

One such alternative would be the cultivation of fish from cells where not only are we able to continue enjoying the fish we have grown to love, we are also able to enjoy one that is free of contaminants and sustainably produced.

What's your backstory?

In 2020, during the height of COVID-19, I was introduced to the idea of being a pescatarian. And being a great fan of fish, I was an immediate fan of the diet. Not only was I able to consistently consume the fish that I love, I was also doing my part towards saving the environment. That was my perception until I dived deep into understanding the diet, its limitations and all things included.

And not only was I able to have a better grasp of what the pescatarian diet is all about, I was also led down a rabbit hole of unravelling the impacts of conventional fisheries and aquaculture on our environment and our health. This was the major “aha” moment where I realised that the fish we have grown to love wasn't what many had claimed to be, a clean and sustainable meat.

Yet, this discovery hadn't stopped my love for fish and I wanted to continue consuming it which brought me on an exploration journey. Fortunately, it wasn't long until I came across the idea of cultivated seafood, a revolutionary methodology that enables the production of sustainable seafood and one that is freed of contaminants. And together with my previous co-workers who are individuals adept at cell culture, we decided to establish Fisheroo to redefine the incrementally dysfunctional seafood production system.

What should be the first steps to take to enter your industry?

The cultivated meat / seafood industry was first placed in the spotlight in 2013 with Professor Mark Post revealing the world's first cultivated beef burger. And 9 years after the revelation, the industry remains to be a relatively nascent space comparative to its conventional animal agriculture counterpart. Nonetheless, much can be learned from the experiences of the pioneers within the industry.

Thus, for one to enter the industry, one has to start with attaining a certain level of technical understanding towards the process of cultivating meat / seafood from cells while also deep diving into what has / has not worked for the industry pioneers. By completing the above, one would be well equipped to venture into this new and growing industry.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

The first 100 days was spent on creating structural frameworks spanning across the different verticals within the industry and that framework has ever since served as the foundation for Fisheroo's progression. One such example of progression would be the securing of investors during our previous fundraising round where the framework had effectively equipped the founders with clarity in thought processes while providing flexibility to adapt towards circumstances, convincing the investors of our capabilities and Fisheroo's future outlook.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

While Fisheroo remains to be a research & development pre-revenue company, the company has been able to garner tremendous interest and commitments from various stakeholders who would eventually become our customers. To attract said customers, it would be attributed to the act of putting yourself into their shoes. By having a deep understanding towards the needs of our potential customers and aligning our value proposition to address those needs, the engagement of our solution becomes a natural next-step for these customers.

What has taken you from 0 to 100?

The development of an intricate industry map. In an industry that remains ever so nascent, There is an insurmountable amount of challenges and unknown and each of which represents an opportunity that companies could tap upon and develop novel solutions to advance the industry.

And if one depends only on the information portrayed by the general community, it's common to be flooded with what seems to be the “only” or “most pressing” issue at hand while discounting all the other potential challenges that are nothing short of pivotal towards advancing the industry. Thus, with an intricate industry map that identifies both the challenges and solutions in the industry, we are able to better position ourselves in the growing industry, differentiating our technology from the rest by targeting on “discounted” challenges or by working on an existing problem through an alternative perspective.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

The cultivated meat / seafood industry takes tremendous references from the pharmaceutical and biomedical industry at large. And while these references have advanced the industry till date, they aren't necessarily the technology that would enable the industry to advance beyond what it is today. Therefore, it is important for leaders in the cultivated meat / seafood industry to look towards fit-for-purpose technologies / consumables that are outside of the box and across the entire value chain which is essentially what Fisheroo aims to achieve.

What was one challenge you had to go through that others in your industry should look out for?

Being a young entrepreneur is tough. And within an industry where qualifications matter (for good reasons), it's always challenging to dissipate the doubt others have of you without a PhD upon our first meeting. And it is precisely this doubt imposed by others that motivated me into an exponential learning curve, understanding the technicalities of the industry from the surface to the fine details and while it still remains to be a process in progress, my technical understanding has undoubtedly improved by folds during the past year.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Beyond the conventional productivity tools such as Microsoft 365 and Google Suite, the team at Fisheroo utilises Benchling as our electronic laboratory notebook which has been extremely helpful in organising the tremendous amounts of data produced each day and consistently keeping everyone in the team up to date with the latest scientific breakthroughs within the company.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

Life has never been so exciting until Fisheroo where the developments within the company had been nothing short of exponential since being in operation for the past year. And based on our trajectory, we are poised to be sharing our first cultivated seafood prototype with the world really soon, a milestone not to be trifled with.

Above and beyond, Fisheroo is far from being content with the achievements of today as the brewing pipelines behind the scenes would be nothing short of pivotal within the industry. And as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. And as a company, we see ourselves as a tide within the vast ocean and the technology developed by Fisheroo would be coming in on a king tide, lifting all boats as we enable the industry at large to transit from a stage of start-up to scale-up.

The road ahead with Fisheroo would be something everyone should watch out for.