US-based seafood robotics company Shinkei Systems has raised a $22 million Series A round, bringing its total funding to $30 million.
Founders Fund and Interlagos led the round with participation from new investors Yamato Holdings, Shrug, CIV, Jaws, and Mantis, along with existing investors.
Funding will go towards expanding the company’s reach with retailers and commercial fishing vessels as well as building out the engineering team.
‘Real science’ behind humane practices
Shinkei’s machine, named Poseidon, combines robotics with supply chain tracking, cold storage practices, and Japan’s ancient ike jime fishing method, where fish are slaughtered via a spike to the brain that causes immediate brain death. The idea is to slaughter fish more humanely and provide restaurants and food retailers with a higher-quality product in the process.
Commercially caught fish are typically left to suffocate to death on the decks of fishing vessels, explains Shinkei cofounder and CEO Saif Khawaja. During that time—anywhere from a few minutes to a solid hour—fish release stress hormones, lactic acid, and other elements that can build up acidity in the meat while simultaneously reducing its shelf life.
Shinkei’s tech, which sits on the decks of fishing vessels, scans fish to determine type before immediately slaughtering them by spiking the brain in what’s essentially an automated version of the ike jime method. The blood is drained from the fish via osmosis.
“[Fish] lose consciousness right away, and that stops stress and the production of stress hormones, which means that the meat does not become acidic and speed up bacterial growth,” says Khawaja.
“You have this compounding effect that leads to up to 3x shelf life and more retention of flavor. Obviously this is also a nice story of [the fishing process] being humane, but the core is that there’s actual real science and data behind why these fish are more efficient on a unit economic basis to trade.”
The long game
Shinkei provides its Poseidon tech to commercial fishing vessels free of charge. Fishermen can then sell their catch back to Shinkei at a premium.
Shinkei then sells the fish via its Seremoni CPG brand, which was launched in 2024 with the aim of bringing Seremoni-grade fish to the masses.
“We tried to rent and sell the machines before, but what we found is that we’d rather just go and tell the story directly to the people who accrue that value,” says Khawaja. “This is almost like a hands-free way to be able to draw out significantly more value from your catch without having to do anything crazy or buy a new vessel.”
For Khawaja, who grew up a hobbyist fisherman and has worked on commercial fishing vessels as an adult, part of Shinkei’s mission is to make it easier for fishermen to adopt better practices.
“It’s such an unpredictable and dangerous job, and to tell them they have to handle fish humanely is really unfair to ask, to be frank,” he says. He adds that Shinkei basically incentivizes these fishing operations to “play the long game” for sustainable practices while still being able to capture a premium for their products.
The Seremoni brand launched Black Cod and Black Sea Bass last year and has already been featured in certain celebrity chef restaurants. Part of the new capital will go towards bringing the brand’s wares to more retailers and restaurants, as well as introducing new fish to the lineup including red snapper and salmon.
Shinkei is also actively expanding its engineering team and “aggressively hiring,” according to Khawaja. Part of the new capital will go towards this expansion as the company scales.
Currently, Shinkei operates across the US western seaboard and will also head eastward to Cape Cod in July of this year. By the end of the year it also hopes to be working in the Gulf.
