Mollusk money: Lab-grown oyster maker attracts key investor

In North Carolina, a startup pursuing lab-grown oysters has received an unspecified investment from Cult Food Science, an investment firm focused on cultivated meat and dairy and cellular agriculture. 

Pearlita’s cofounder and CEO Nikita Michelsen tells FoodIngredientsFirst that farmed oysters face “huge threats” from rising ocean temperatures and contaminated waters. “We are providing a healthy and safe alternative for consumption to help meet the demand,” she says. “This way more oysters can stay in the water longer to do their critical tasks, such as carbon sequestration and filtering water.”  

The ability to produce oysters in an indoor and controlled environment would also prevent food poisoning. “Increasingly polluted waters and bacteria that grows in them means that eating raw oysters can pose a threat to human health, such as norovirus and vibrio bacteria in oysters. It is pretty frightening,” adds Michelsen.

Other Pearlita investors include Sustainable Food Ventures and Big Idea Ventures New Protein Fund. According to Cult Food Science, about 85% of wild oyster reefs have been lost globally.