Forsea nourish the world with delicious, high-quality seafood while securing the ocean’s health and wealth
Please introduce yourself and your startup Forsea Foods to our readers!
Hi, I’m Roee Nir, the co-founder and CEO of Forsea, a cultivated seafood company aiming to nourish the world with delicious and high-quality seafood while protecting ocean life and its delicate ecosystem.
I am a biotech engineer and also holds an MBA degree from New York University. In the past 18 years I’ve served in various strategic roles in the Foodtech, Biotech and Digital Health industries. I’m a big ocean fan and my favorite hobby is surfing.
How did you get the idea of Forsea Foods?
The Kitchen Hub, a well-known Israeli incubator and venture creator, connected me with Dr. Iftach Nachman, a senior researcher in Tel Aviv University and the innovator of the organoid technology and with Dr. Yaniv Elkouby, a senior researcher in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. With my background at Biotech and international business I immediately got fascinated by the technology and about the opportunity make such an incredible impact on people food security while helping our oceans and planet strive. Forsea’s technology is the next generation of cultivated meat and I’m proud to lead such an innovative company at such notable missions.
What is the vision behind Forsea Foods?
Forsea’s vision is to nourish the world with delicious, high-quality seafood while securing the ocean’s health & wealth.
How difficult was the start and which challenges you had to overcome?
Running an early-stage start-up is challenging at many aspects. We have set ambitious technological milestones for a unique disruptive technology. As we are dealing with a biotech process things take time, and also significant funding is required. I’m happy to say that, so far, we managed to achieve the goals we had set for ourselves and we are moving forward very well across all domains.
Who is your target audience?
Forsea will commercialize products that are identical in flavor, texture and nutritional value to wild-catch products – and at the same price. Hence, our audience is people that love eating fish and seafood at high quality and are happy that the products they eat also does not have any adverse impact on our ocean and planet.
What is the USP of your startup?
Forsea has a unique, disruptive to produce cultivated seafood in a very similar way nature does. While the cultivated meat common practice focuses on directed differentiation – which means directing stem cells to specific cell types, either muscle or fat, our technology focuses on helping stem cells form 3D micro-tissues (organoids) that spontaneously differentiate to the different edible cell types. Our tissue is naturally composed of a mixture of fat, muscle and connective tissue – just like in nature.
Can you describe your typical workday ?
My workdays are quite divers and I’m not sure that I can say that there is a typical day. I usually start my working day at 8AM, after sending the kids to school. I scan through my emails to prioritize any urgent tasks that may require my immediate attention. After handling these I start many pre-scheduled meetings with our tech team, partners, vendors and stakeholders. I always block some time in my calendar, later on the same day to handle unexpected events as well as answer emails. My working day may end quite late in many of the days.
Where do you see yourself and your startup Forsea Foods in five years?
In 5 years will have a full commercial-scale manufacturing facility in APAC. This facility will produce several fish and seafood products to the territory. In addition, we will be in the process of building another manufacturing facility in the USA and/or Europe to serve these markets as well.
What 3 tips would you give to founders?
Your employees are the most important asset of the company. Treat them as such.
Chose your investors and partners wisely. You have a long journey together – you want to do it with the right people.
Believe in and be passionate about what you are doing. This give you an endless motivation that will help you overcome many of the hurdles along the way.
More information you will find here
Thank you Roee Nir for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
