SeafoodAI, a rising force in sustainable seafood tech, has secured a strategic investment from NEC X, the Silicon Valley venture studio backed by NEC Corporation. The funding announcement follows SeafoodAI’s graduation from NEC X’s Elev X! Ignite program and marks a major milestone in the startup’s mission to modernize seafood supply chains through AI and real-time biometrics.
AI-Powered CrabScan360 Tackles $50B Seafood Waste
SeafoodAI’s flagship product, CrabScan360, is already making waves in the crab fishing industry—automating the measurement, sorting, and logging of crabs using advanced biometric scanning. The innovation aims to replace outdated, error-prone manual processes that contribute to over $50 billion in annual seafood losses. By digitizing these workflows, CrabScan360 enhances traceability, streamlines regulatory compliance, and delivers high-accuracy data insights across the seafood supply chain.
Targeting the global $11.5 billion crab fisheries market, the system provides processors, regulators, and retailers with verifiable, real-time harvest data—laying the foundation for scalable sustainability certifications.
Sustainability That Sells: Retailers Demand Proof
With major retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Whole Foods committing to sell only certified sustainable seafood by 2027, the need for verifiable sourcing is growing rapidly. SeafoodAI empowers fisheries and processors to meet these new standards at speed and scale—bridging the gap between traditional harvesting and modern transparency demands.
“Our oceans can’t afford business as usual,” said Rob Terry, CEO and founder of SeafoodAI. “CrabScan360 gives fisheries a powerful tool to prove sustainability in real time—building trust with consumers and ensuring compliance without the paperwork.”
From Prototype to Pilot: Backed by NEC X and Academia
Through NEC X’s Elev X! Ignite program, SeafoodAI accessed next-gen image recognition and AI tools that helped fast-track the development of CrabScan360. The startup’s technology matured significantly during the accelerator’s Batch 9, with direct input from NEC experts.
“SeafoodAI is exactly the kind of bold, high-impact startup we seek to support,” said Shintaro Matsumoto, CEO of NEC X. “Their AI-based biometric verification solves a critical global challenge—building a new digital standard for the seafood industry.”
SeafoodAI is now gaining traction beyond crab, expanding its AI technology into aquaculture and other seafood categories like tuna, salmon, and shrimp. The company is working with the University of Mississippi to adapt its scanners for broader marine use cases and is actively piloting its digital logbook to streamline data collection.
Partnering for Trust and Traceability
SeafoodAI’s expansion is backed by collaborations with major certification bodies and traceability advocates, including Aruna, ASIC, and Where Food Comes From. The startup also partners with Hyperion to scale its scanners into seafood processing factories, helping automate verification across the supply chain.
Beyond hardware, SeafoodAI is building a robust data infrastructure designed to underpin a trusted digital verification marketplace. This system will allow harvesters, regulators, and retailers to connect in real time—using standardized data to prove provenance and sustainability from dock to shelf.
A graduate of Techstars Water Tech and Blue Swell’s Sea Ahead program, SeafoodAI is gaining industry recognition, recently winning the Open Sphere Startup Awards 2024. The startup generates revenue through a hybrid model—combining biometric hardware sales with recurring SaaS subscriptions—supporting long-term scalability across the $12 billion seafood tech sector.
