Gathered Foods—the parent company of vegan seafood brand Good Catch Foods—recently closed a $26.35 million funding round. The funds will be used to ramp up innovation, increase its product range, and help its Good Catch brand expand internationally. The expansion is expected to begin in Europe and further rollouts are planned for later this year.  

Last year, Gathered Foods raised $36.5 million from celebrity investors, including Paris Hilton, Lance Bass, and Woody Harrelson. The company also entered into a joint venture with Bumble Bee Foods, which will leverage the tuna giant’s sales, distribution, and logistics expertise to make Gathered Foods’ vegan products accessible to a wide range of customers at affordable prices. This most recent funding round included investors such as global agricultural commodities superpower Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) and Unovis Asset Management and Big Idea Ventures.

“Partnering with proven companies who are innovators in their own right can only sharpen our ability to positively disrupt a nascent industry with our innovative portfolio of Good Catch products,” Gathered Foods CEO Christine Mei said.

Currently, the Good Catch product portfolio includes vegan tuna pouches in Mediterranean, Naked in Water, and Oil & Herbs flavors as well as New England Style Plant-Based Crabless Cakes, Thai Style Plant-Based Fishless Cakes, and Classic Style Plant-Based Fishless Burgers. The brand’s vegan tuna—which is made from a proprietary blend of six legumes—is on the menu as a tuna melt sandwich at all 37 locations of vegan chain Veggie Grill nationwide. 

The Seaspiracy movement

Gathered Foods’ expansion plans come at a critical time when the global fishing industry continues to destroy the world’s oceans  as spotlighted by new Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, which debuted last month. Produced by Kip Anderson—the documentary filmmaker behind Cowspiracy and What the Health—the film exposes the damaging effects of the global fishing industry on the world’s oceans, as well as corruption such as faulty sustainable fish certifications and shrimp industry slave labor. Earlier this month, the film inspired Hong Kong-based grocery store Slowood to stop selling fish.

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