Portuguese bivalve aquaculture company, Oceano Fresco S.A., has concluded an investment round of €2.7 million led by BlueCrow Capital, a bioeconomy-focused venture capital fund. Proceeds will be used largely to complete the construction and begin operating the company’s state-of-the-art biomarine center (hatchery, labs and offices) in Nazaré, on the Atlantic coast of central Portugal.

With this latest closing, total investment in Oceano Fresco has now surpassed €7.5 million, including €3.5 million from competitive grants and over €1.5 million from the founders, BlueCrow Capital and an international group of seed investors.

Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho, founder and CEO of Oceano Fresco, said that “this is another important step towards our goal of establishing a fully integrated, systematic, scalable and science-based aquaculture operation for the production of superior bivalve species.”

Oceano Fresco uses cutting-edge tools and a science-based approach to breed and commercialize premium species of bivalves starting with varieties of clam native to Europe. Besides the hatchery and the biomarine center, the company has acquired open-sea concessions for off-shore farming and employs experts in fields ranging from shellfish genetics to commercial plant and animal breeding. Its integrated business model allows the company to control several key steps in the value chain of clam production with the final aim of becoming the world leader in the sustainable production of high-value bivalve species.