Umaro is turning ocean-farmed seaweed into imitation bacon

Don't call it a pivot, but it's a fascinating journey. Umaro Foods entered the world as Trophic. The firm was formed to compete for the $100 million Carbon removal XPrize.

The organization was able to land a $5 million prize because of research done by Beth Zotter. The firm had to rethink things because there was no clear path forward. The planet has been on a generally horrifying trajectory for the last several decades, so most VC firms are looking for some positive climate investments. The tricky part is always the.

Umaro is the image.

I focused my efforts on finding a new commercial opportunity in seaweed because I knew that biofuel was not commercially viable near term.

These are long runway ideas that most investors don't like. seaweed is also an excellent source of protein and offers a lot of potential for carbon sequestration. It seems like a win-win. The Umaro Foods explores meat alternatives that are less harmful to the environment than factory farming.

It is not easy to navigate a profoundly different path to revenue. You need to get people who know about food. Zotter received a $250,000 grant from the Good Food Institute for her project. She was able to bring on the co-founder and CTO, who had four years of experience at a pea-protein dairy alternative company.

Umaro is the image.

Zotter says that seaweeds can produce moreProtein per unit area than conventional crops with no freshwater and no syntheticfertilizer. Like soy, seaweeds have all the essential amino acids. Our goal is to produce a product that can compete with soy on price and volume, as well as taste and function.

Umaro raised a $3 million seed round led by AgFunder. The funding is being used to accelerate the company's go-to-market strategy, with plans to begin piloting their seaweed-based bacon at select restaurants in Q2. Zotter thinks Trophic could be a spinout.

I haven't tasted Umaro's bacon. At most, the seaweed taste is subtle, according to Zotter when we met the other week. It is the kind of thing that a refined palettes might be able to pick out. I'm willing to give it a try, as someone who's not eating pork products in multiple decades, who's trying to limit his meat intake, and who's never eaten pork before. It looks like the part in the above photo.