Investor Memo -- The Case for Seaweed Investment in Europe

The objective of "The Case for Seaweed Investment in Europe" report is to provide a maximum of elements to call private capital to dive in and unlock the European seaweed opportunity.

What you can expect to find in this investor memo:

• The review of a pipeline of 220+ innovative seaweed start-ups and SMEs in Europe:
  • The number of innovative seaweed start-ups and SMEs in Europe has almost tripled in 10 years, reaching 220+ companies in 2021, from 74 in 2010.
  • 85% of these European seaweed companies have left the lab or pilot stage as they claim an advanced Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 8 or 9.
  • Despite a large concentration on a few product applications (more than 50% of companies surveyed focus on food products), an increasing number of companies are exploring alternative end markets for seaweed that include for instance pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or bio-packaging.
  • Most of these seaweed companies have some level of vertical integration, proving the industry’s robustness – 140 companies (63%) perform more than one activity across the seaweed value chain, mostly across production, processing and biorefinery, and product development.
    
    
• The analysis of 140 transactions done in the European seaweed industry in the past decade
  • The overall amount invested in European seaweed companies has grown by 24x between 2010 and 2020, from less than €900k annually in 2010 to more than €21.6m in 2020 (for publicly disclosed transactions).
  • Enterprise Value to sales ratios of European seaweed companies are today between 4 and 22, still much lower than other sustainable peer industries which recently benefited from significant investments (e.g., insect-based feed or plant-based food that today experience double to triple digit Enterprise Value to sales ratios).
  • The continual growth of grant funding showcases the recognition by the public sector and philanthropies of the importance of environment, economic and social benefits of seaweed, and the need for catalytic funding to help this nascent industry to step up.
     
• A compendium of deep dives and case studies to illustrate the diversity of seaweed innovative technologies and business models in Europe
• An analysis of recent positive signals on seaweed from the political world and from incumbent players 

We hope you will find this report insightful and relevant, we encourage you to share it with your network of investors!