The problem
Asia’s appetite for shrimp, crab and lobster keeps growing, but wild stocks are overfished, shrimp farming destroys mangroves, and contamination scandals keep hitting supply chains.
How it works
Founded in 2018 by stem-cell scientist Sandhya Sriram and Ka Yi Ling, Shiok Meats grew real crustacean meat from cells in bioreactors — showcasing world-first cultivated shrimp, lobster and crab prototypes — and built Singapore R&D facilities while planning a first commercial production plant, also acquiring Gaia Foods for cultivated red meat.
Pain points
Guilt-laden seafood consumption, fragile supply chains exposed by contamination and disease outbreaks in shrimp farms, and no scalable alternative to wild catch or aquaculture.
Business model
Premium cultivated seafood for restaurants and retail starting in Singapore (the first market to approve cultivated meat), plus strategic R&D partnerships with Asian food giants and seafood incumbents.
Challenges
Bioreactor economics stayed far above conventional shrimp prices; the 2022–2023 funding winter starved capital-intensive cultivated players; and with co-founder Sriram exiting at the merger, the Shiok brand survives only inside the combined entity.
Funding
- Raised: $30M total to date after a July 2021 strategic bridge round with Woowa Brothers, CJ CheilJedang and Vinh Hoan plus existing investors, alongside an Enterprise Singapore Startup SG Tech grant (AgFunderNews).
- Valuation: MISSING.
- Status: acquired — merged into Umami Bioworks, March 2024.
Latest — March 2024
Singapore cultivated-seafood startups Umami Bioworks and Shiok Meats agreed to merge into a single entity keeping the Umami Bioworks name under CEO Mihir Pershad, with Shiok co-founder and Group CEO Sandhya Sriram exiting after six years and Shiok staff joining Umami’s crustacean cell-line work (Green Queen, Mar 2024).