The round includes prominent investors such as Toyo Seikan Group, the Yield Lab Asia Pacific, AgFunder, Katapult Ocean, and Kul Loesningar 3.
The investment will fuel growth, the company said, by expanding manufacturing capabilities, accelerating product innovation, and reinforcing its global footprint across the agriculture, animal health, and human nutrition markets.
“We are excited to partner with investors who share our vision for a next-generation seaweed industry,” said Seadling’s founder and managing director, Simon Davis.
“This funding empowers us to push boundaries, meet the increasing demand for sustainable functional ingredients, and advance our mission of driving impactful innovation across the sector.”
Boosting seaweed’s potential through biotechnology and sustainable farming
Seadling operates large-scale seaweed farms in Borneo, working closely with local communities and smallholder farmers.
Using advanced proprietary hatchery technology and fermentation processes, it aims to enhance the production of beneficial compounds in seaweed, such as oligosaccharides.
Seadling has introduced a patent-pending fermentation process for producing vitamin K2 from seaweed, offering a natural, sustainable, plant-based alternative to conventional sources.
In 2024, it achieved HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certification, becoming the only seaweed company in Malaysia to earn this globally recognised standard.
From this process it creates functional ingredients for various industries, including pet food, animal feed, human nutraceuticals and plant biostimulants.
“Our mission is to build the seaweed industry of the future by innovating both new product applications for seaweed ingredients and improving the productivity and sustainability of seaweed farming,” Davis told AgTechNavigator.
Seadling provides smallholders with a dependable buyer providing market access and stable income. “There are a lot of sketchy middlemen in seaweed industry that manipulate farmers,” Daves noted.
It also provides training to improve the quality and productivity of seaweed farming and seaweed varieties that are resistant to diseases and future ocean temperature rises.
Expanding international presence
Seadling said the new funds will it help continue its global expansion through key strategic partnerships.
Its tie-up with the US agribusiness Scoular, for example, enables the distribution of its seaweed-based functional ingredients to the North American market. Its deal with Japanese packaging leader Toyo Seikan Group has also opened doors for market entry into Japan.
Beyond pet nutrition
While the company initially focused on pet nutrition, it is actively developing new products to expand into human, poultry, and equine applications in 2025. The seed round marks a significant step toward broadening the impact of its functional seaweed-based ingredients across multiple industries, it said.
“Since our first meeting with Simon in 2018, Seadling has become a leader in seaweed biotechnology,” said Claire Pribula, managing director of the Yield Lab Asia Pacific.
“Through the use of improved genetics, combined with a patented process to extract nutrition complete with vitamin K12, Seadling offers food companies the ability to replace synthetic man-made ingredients with all natural sustainable functional ingredients, sourced from the ocean.
“This is good for the wellness of people, pets and poultry, and great for the survivability and economic benefit of the smallholder seaweed farmers across Southeast Asia.”
