On February 23, 2022, Wildtype, a start-up creating sushi-grade cultivated salmon, announced the completion of a $100 million Series B funding round, the largest for a cultivated seafood company. Wildtype launched in 2016 with a mission to help transform the food system by offering consumers "the most sustainable seafood on earth." Wildtype's salmon is free of mercury, microplastics, antibiotics, and other common contaminants.  The round was led by L Catterton, and includes investments from Leonardo DiCaprio, Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, S2G Ventures Oceans and Seafood Fund, Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition, Cargill, and several prominent chefs and professional athletes. Existing investors, including Spark Capital and CRV, participated in the round. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Wildtype in the transaction.

In 2021, Wildtype unveiled its sushi-grade salmon offering and opened a first-of-its-kind pilot production plant in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. With both product and production ambitions in place, Wildtype has moved swiftly to recruit innovators and culinary partners. Wildtype expects to bring its product to market via soon-to-be-announced fine dining restaurant partners following the completion of the FDA’s pre-market consultation process. This new round of funding will allow Wildtype to expand production capacity as it prepares for its U.S. market launch.

The Wilson Sonsini team that represented Wildtype in the transaction includes corporate attorneys Elton Satusky, Matt Kovac, Roy Argand, Gloria Liang, and Matt Maricic; regulatory attorney Stephen Heifetz;  and paralegals Kathy Jordan and Jasonna Auzenne.

For more information, please see Wildtype's press release.