Deniz Fıçıcıoğlu and her team, who secured the second place in the Women Leadership category at the EIT Women Innovators Awards 2023-2024, have answered our questions regarding their venture BettaF!sh.
Deniz Fıçıcıoğlu, also known as the winner of Start-Up Days Internationale Grüne Woche 2023 in the “Sustainability” category and the V-Label award in 2022 for “Best Fish Alternative,” as well as the recipient of the German Food Initiative Award 2020 and the DLG Innovation Spotlight Award 2020, alongside BettaF!sh. We extend our gratitude to Deniz Fıçıcıoğlu, co-founder of BettaF!sh, and Thao Trinh from the marketing team for taking the time to answer our questions.
Foodback: What’s BettaF!sh?
BettaF!sh is making seaweed the new mainstream food by not only developing the most authentic and delicious plant-based fish alternative out of European seaweed but also pushing forward the R&D of seaweed ingredients and making them accessible for the food industry. By that, we’re regenerating our oceans and ensuring an alternative, sustainable income source for fishing communities with seaweed farming.
Foodback: We see that BettaF!sh is now in numerous stores and going strong with brand collaborations. How did you manage to break the first barrier to entry and convince people about your product?
Two things we’re very serious about is having the tastiest product and price parity with the original animal product – these are the things consumers care about at the end. We achieve the authentic ocean-y taste thanks to European seaweed we harvest with our partner farms in Norway and Ireland. To achieve price parity, we try to reach economies of scale. We were pretty lucky to have big and renowned partners, like BILLA in Austria or Coop in Switzerland. For our very first product launch in 2022, we partnered up with ALDI to make TU-NAH available throughout Germany – it actually was the biggest alt seafood launch in Europe! Our prices haven’t quite reached price parity yet, as we’re up against international conglomerates. However, we’re making excellent progress and heading in the right direction!
Foodback: How can other brands collaborate with you?
Just say “hi” and introduce yourself! We’re very open to new ideas and collaborations to boost the reach of both brands. We already did many collaborations with other food or sustainable brands who share our vision of tasty, affordable products that are gut for you and our planet in the past. It can start with a small social media collaboration and can turn into bigger concepts for joint events and fair booths. Exchanging know-how and market insights was also always super valuable for us and we love to see how all our partners are striving with us.
Foodback: Where do you source your seaweed from? And how sustainable is the seaweed production?
Our seaweed comes from our partner farms in Norway and Ireland with whom we’ve worked together for almost 5 years already, so since we’ve started this all actually. Seaweed is the fastest-growing biomass on the planet. Utilizing this crop in our food system can have a significant impact on our environment. It helps our oceans to regenerate, increases biodiversity, and counteracts acidification. As a zero-input crop, it doesn’t require fresh water, soil, or pesticides to grow anywhere in the world. Long-term, we aim to use local seaweed species to develop products for local geographical markets. Most of our seaweed farmers are former fishermen and women who have transitioned to a more sustainable source of income. Our objective is to boost the demand for seaweed, facilitating more fishermen to make the switch. There really is no such thing as growing and consuming too much seaweed.
Foodback: How do you see the future of seaweed? Do you think we should make investments in seaweed farming?
Definitely! Our oceans are heavily underfunded and we barely know anything about them yet. What we know is that seaweed will play a key role in our future food system. It has a tremendous impact on our environment, the industry and our health so that’s why we’re investing in its R&D today: We are currently exploring novel seaweed processing methods in collaboration with renowned research institutes to create more innovative ingredients using macroalgae, whose full potential as a food ingredient has not yet been fully utilized. By exploring these options deeper, our R&D team and other industry players will be able to create new applications for macroalgae. Seaweed is an aquatic plant and differs from terrestrial plants in its functionality and biochemical composition, which means that new research is required. That’s why we focus on developing new processing methods specifically designed for seaweed as a biomass and its flavor, nutritional and textural properties.
Foodback: Alternative proteins industry is growing but the huge valuations of meat alternatives are coming down. How do you evaluate the future of industry?
Stagnation and consolidation are necessary and natural chapters in growth curves of new industries. The first generation of alternatives was great, but does not deliver for long term excitement. In our opinion, we need a new generation of alternatives that delivers more than just an alternative to something. We need a new generation of products that sources different ingredients than just soy, wheat and artificial aromas. Luckily, we’re a seaweed company. We intentionally chose to offer TU-NAH as a flagship product to achieve impact right away. In the long run, we see our position as a key seaweed player in the industry, making this amazing water plant accessible to everyone – from end consumer to food and processing companies. This will allow for better products with added value in terms of functionality and critical nutrients e.g. digestive support, healthy supply of micronutrients like Omega-3 and iodine.
Foodback: Did you face any governance issues?
No. We actually see a lot of initiatives and funding programmes looking for and supporting projects like ours. I also had the opportunity to be a jury member for an innovation program of the The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and was able to meet and vote for new business ideas that could form our future planet. It’s exciting to see that the potential of seaweed is getting acknowledged more and more!
