Koralo is the first company worldwide using its patented co-fermentation technology of microalgae and mushroom roots to create whole-cut seafood. Mimicking oceans Koralo creates wellness food enriching health and beauty with New F!sh.
The goal of this project from August 2023 - August 2024 was to launch Koralo's products in the Korean market. This meant advancing both the R&D of the product as well as manufacturing and being able to legally sell the products whilst meeting consumer expectations. With Korea having the highest per capita seafood consumptions and consumers being highly quality driven the product needed to be highly localized and marketing also required adjustment to be able to suit consumer needs.
Achieving a sustainable, local production in Korea was also a great feat due to cultural and language barriers as well as technological differences in equipment standards. The process to industrial scale needed to be adjusted and proven to work on standardized equipment which was ultimately achieved during this project.
The team also launched the product in pilot restaurants and secured large partners in Korea who were pivotal in localizing and advancing both the product quality as well as the distribution pipeline and securing legal documents for food manufacturing and distribution. Furthermore, whilst having Korea as a test market the goal was also to advance launching in Europe. The team successfully submitted the Novel Food Dossier to EFSA with all regulatory tests coming back as safe to consume with no concerns.
Overall, Koralo could prove through the support of this project how to leverage as an early stage start-up a technology developed in Europe globally through an adapted local launch, while building marketing and technological know-how benefitting regional roll-out in EU.
This project led by Sina Albanese one of the co-founders of Koralo has been a great test of agility, resilience and cross-cultural and global innovation with some great learnings and successes.
