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Columbi Salmon announces funding round results for RAS-based salmon farm

Columbi Salmon recently held a NOK 162-million (US $18.6 million, EUR €15.9 million) funding round, which has confirmed ongoing interest by some of Norway’s prominent seafood backers in recirculating aquaculture system- (RAS-) based salmon farming.

During the funding round, companies including Broodstock Capital owner Ferd, the majority shareholder in SalMar and Insula owner Kverva Finans, and Columbi Salmon founders, the Refsnes family, which remains Columbi Salmon’s largest shareholder, with a total of 43 per cent of total shares.

Over the past nine months, Columbi Salmon has raised a total of NOK 482 million (US $55.4 million, EUR €47.4 million).
With the goal to become ta leading company in the European Union’s sustainable onshore salmon farming sector, Columbi Salmon’s plan entails the building and operations of a land-based salmon farm in Ostende, Belgium, which will be followed by construction of further production facilities throughout Europe.

To kick-start these endeavours, Columbi entered an agreement with Billund Aquaculture late in 2020 for the development of its Ostende RAS farm, which will produce between 12,000 and 15,000 metric-tons of salmon per year. Vegetables and lettuce will be grown on the fish sludge and water used in the production process. “Our experiments indicate that salmon production can become carbon-neutral, since the plants bind up carbon from fish production, through both water and air,” says Anders Hagen, CEO of Columbi Salmon in a news release. “The facility in Ostend will be the world’s most-advanced, safe, and sustainable RAS farm. Hence, our production will be both profitable, with low emissions and good animal welfare.”