In a convergence of cross-Atlantic vegan seafood brands, US startup Bayou Best Foods has taken over Germany’s BettaF!sh to bring its shrimp, tuna and salmon alternatives to more consumers.
Two years after its establishment, Bayou Best Foods has snapped up fellow women-led startup BettaF!sh to expand the reach of plant-based seafood on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
BettaF!sh (incorporated as Wunderfish) sells vegan canned tuna and salmon products across Europe. For its part, Bayou Best Foods supplies plant-based shrimp to restaurants in the US.
The deal will see both companies’ products cross the Atlantic, bringing seafood alternatives to a wider set of consumers in an effort to perk up the ailing category.
“Early conversations about a partnership made it clear that combining resources made more sense than collaborating separately, especially in a financially constrained market,” Bayou Best Foods CEO Kelli Wilson told Green Queen.
She confirmed that the full teams of both brands have been retained: “The two groups bring complementary strengths, and keeping both intact means we can move faster together rather than rebuilding the capabilities we already have.”
Deniz Ficicioglu, co-founder and CEO of BettaF!sh, will move to a managing director role for the firm’s European business. “She’s built genuine brand loyalty for BettaF!sh over the years, and we have full confidence in her leadership as we move forward together,” Kelli stated.
“This is a natural next chapter for BettaF!sh,” said Ficicioglu. “Both of our companies were built on the belief that protecting the ocean and creating exceptional food should go hand in hand. By joining forces, we can move faster, reach more customers, and help shape the future of seafood together.”
Acquisition combines complementary strengths in plant-based seafood space
Berlin-based BettaF!sh was founded by Ficicioglu and Jacob von Manteuffel in 2020. It sells the Tu-Nah and Sal-Nom range of canned seafood alternatives, which are made from a base of pea and fava bean proteins, rapeseed oil, and seaweed, and supply 8-10g of protein and over 6g of fibre per 100g.
These products are available on supermarket shelves in eight European countries, and have landed on the menus of a number of foodservice players across the region, including chains like Pizza Hut and L’Osteria, caterers such as Aramark, and travel operators Deutsche Bahn and Japan Airlines.
Bayou Best Foods was launched in 2024 by food tech investor Big Idea Ventures, using intellectual property from German alt-seafood startup New Wave Foods, which had ceased operations a year earlier.
The acquired IP included formulations and specific production techniques, but not any manufacturing sites. Big Idea Ventures appointed Kelli Wilson as the firm’s CEO, leveraging her years of executive experience at Conagra, Perdue Farms and Beyond Meat to drive the brand’s growth.
Bayou Best Foods works with co-manufacturers to produce allergen-free plant-based shrimp for the US foodservice industry, distributing nationwide through Sysco, US Foods, Performance Food Group, Ace Natural, and What Chefs Want. It has also partnered with vegan bodega company Plantega, which has added a breaded vegan shrimp to its menu at over 100 locations in New York.
The deal combines BettaF!sh’s expertise in seaweed-based seafood innovation and established European presence with Bayou Best Foods’s expansive foodservice footprint, operational expertise, and proven track record of commercialising vegan fish products in the US.
“Our goal has always been to bring great-tasting, ocean-friendly seafood to more people, and BettaF!sh is exactly the kind of partner that makes that possible,” said Wilson. “We share the same belief that seafood should be delicious, accessible, and sustainable, and we see enormous potential in what we can build together.”
Bayou Best Foods eyes global leadership in ocean-friendly seafood
The drive to expand access to plant-based seafood reflects the wide-ranging issues plaguing the conventional aquaculture industry. Globally, nearly 90% of fish stocks are at or above their maximum sustainable yield or are overfished.
One study suggests that we could be heading towards a complete collapse of ocean life by 2048, driven by overfishing, microplastic pollution, toxic chemical runoff, antibiotic and pesticide use, sea lice, and mercury. Climate change is worsening things, pushing fish to the high seas where they’re likely to be overexploited, causing diseases, and driving up prices.
Crustaceans, such as shrimp and prawns, account for 22% of the total carbon emissions from fishing, despite making up just 6% of all the tonnage landed. The species has been vastly affected by climate change too, suffering from population declines, with the spawning population only an eighth of what it was in 1908. There has been a collapse in Atlantic shrimp numbers too, thanks to ocean warming.
Consumers recognise this. A 2024 survey by the Marine Stewardship Council found that 30% of people had been eating less seafood in the last two years, with 48% concerned about overfishing and 35% worried about climate change impacts. Over 80% had changed their dietary habits during this period, and 43% did so for sustainability reasons.
Still, vegan seafood has been confined to the fringes. In the US, sales of these products fell by 3% in 2025, totalling just $10M – that equates to less than 1% of the overall dollar revenue from plant-based meat and seafood.
That has forced several alternative seafood startups to wind down in recent years, including Hooked Foods, Aqua Cultured Foods, Olala!, Konscious Foods, Upstream Foods, and Vegan Finest Foods. The BettaF!sh deal is the latest in a wave of consolidatory moves in the alternative protein space, where over 80 firms have been acquired, merged, fallen into insolvency, or shut down since September 2024.
That said, brands with differentiated strategies stand to win. Oshi raised $3M after sales of its vegan salmon quadrupled in 2025, and the startup expects a similar increase this year as well. In Canada, meanwhile, NS/TX Industries bagged $10.5M to build an automated production system for plant-based salmon, beef and pork, alongside a $3.5M grant from the Canadian government to scale up its tech.
“It’s genuinely hard to replicate the texture and flavour of fish and shellfish, and the ingredients that come closest tend to be expensive, pushing finished costs above what’s competitive at retail or on a menu,” said Kelli. “Both Bayou Best Foods and BettaF!sh are built around solving exactly these problems, and we’re closing the gap on taste and cost that’s held the category back.”
Bayou Best Foods’s vegan shrimp will now be made available to BettaF!sh’s foodservice clients across Europe, and over time, the latter’s tuna and salmon analogues will be introduced to the former’s US network. The acquisition combines their complementary expertise in ingredient innovation, product development, and commercialisation, with the entity aiming to become a global leader in vegan seafood.
