Oceanloop to Scale Land-Based Aquaculture

German aquaculture technology company Oceanloop has secured up to €38.5 million in financing to scale its software-driven recirculating aquaculture systems and expand European production of Giant Grouper.

The financing package combines new equity commitments from Hatch Blue’s Blue Revolution Fund and Stolt Ventures with a €32 million venture-debt facility from the European Investment Bank. Backed by the European Union’s InvestEU program, the capital will fund Oceanloop’s research, development, and commercial expansion across Germany and Spain as it transforms more than a decade of engineering and biological experience into a standardized platform for land-based marine aquaculture.

“This financing marks the beginning of Oceanloop’s industrial scale-up,” said Dr. Fabian Riedel, Founder and CEO of Oceanloop. “Together with our shareholder and technology partner Sander, we have spent more than a decade developing, operating and continuously improving land-based marine aquaculture systems. With Hatch Blue, Stolt Ventures and the European Investment Bank, we are bringing together specialist aquaculture investment expertise, decades of commercial seafood experience and long-term European growth financing. This gives us the foundation to scale Oceanloop from proven technology into an international aquaculture platform.”

The company recently shifted from R&D to commercial operations, initiating Giant Grouper sales in April 2026 through its sister company, Honest Catch. Current production takes place at a facility in Strande near Kiel yielding 20 to 30 tons annually. Oceanloop plans to begin construction on a new, state-of-the-art farm at the Kiel site by the end of 2026, designed to produce approximately 250 tons per year. The Kiel facility will serve as both a commercial production site and a reference platform integrating applied research, laboratory services, software development, and digital monitoring.

In the next phase of expansion, Oceanloop intends to construct an industrial-scale platform on Gran Canaria with an annual production capacity of 2,000 tons. Oceanloop is currently advancing project development and site activities through its local subsidiary on the island. The facility will operate as an integrated platform covering hatchery operations, farming, processing, and digital management, leveraging local access to seawater and renewable energy potential to supply European seafood markets.

While Oceanloop is concentrating its owned European farms on Giant Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus), its modular, software-controlled recirculating technology is adaptable to various marine species and operational scales. The company is also continuing R&D for land-based shrimp farming and is holding discussions with potential international partners for regional production deployment, including potential licensing agreements, strategic partnerships, and joint ventures in import-dependent markets.

“Our own European farms will initially focus on Giant Grouper, but the wider Oceanloop platform is designed for international replication across different species and markets,” said Dr. Bert Wecker, Founder and CTO of Oceanloop. “We see significant interest from partners that want to produce premium seafood closer to consumption without having to develop the required biology, engineering, software and operational expertise from the ground up.”