The Shiok Meats team

Shiok Meats, a leading cell-based crustacean meat company based in Singapore, has secured US$12.6 million in Series A funding round, led by Aqua-Spark, an investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture.

The round also saw participation a slew of investors from across the world, including SEEDS Capital (the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore), Real Tech Fund (Japan), Irongrey (a global tech investing family office based in Korea), Yellowdog Empowers Fund (South Korea).

Other co-investors in the round are Ilshin Holdings (Singapore), Toyo Seikan Group Holdings (Japan), Veg Invest Trust (US), Makana Ventures (Singapore), AiiM Partners LP (US), Beyond Impact (Europe), Kelvin Chan Siang Lin (Singapore), and Alex Payne and Nicole Brodeur (US).

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According to a press release, Shiok will use the funds to build the first-of-its-kind commercial pilot plant from which it plans to launch its minced shrimp product in 2022.

In July, Shiok raised US$3 million in bridge funding from investors, including Agronomics and VegInvest.

Founded in August 2018 by two stem cell scientists Dr. Sandhya Sriram (CEO) and Dr. Ka Yi Ling (CTO), Shiok claims to be the first cell-based meat company in Southeast Asia and the first and only cell-based meat company working on shrimp.