Covington Represents Private Equity Firm in FDA Diligence for Largest Ever Series B Funding Round for a Cultivated Seafood Company

Covington Represents Private Equity Firm in FDA Diligence for Largest Ever Series B Funding Round for a Cultivated Seafood Company

February 23, 2022

WASHINGTON, February 23, 2022—Covington advised L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm, on FDA regulatory due diligence in a $100 million Series B funding round in Wildtype, the largest for a cultivated seafood company.

The round also included investments from Leonardo DiCaprio, Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, S2G Ventures Oceans and Seafood Fund, Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition, Cargill, and several prominent chefs and professional athletes. Existing investors, including Spark Capital and CRV, participated in the round.

With more than $30 billion of equity capital across its fund strategies and 17 offices around the world, L Catterton has made approximately 250 investments in consumer businesses since 1989. Wildtype is a San Francisco startup developing cellular agriculture technology to grow cultivated seafood without fishing or farming. Cellular agriculture focuses on the production of agriculture products, like seafood, meat and poultry from cell cultures using a combination of biotechnology, tissue engineering, molecular biology, and synthetic biology.

The Covington due diligence team was led by Brian Sylvester and included Jessica O’Connell and Rachel Nixon.

Covington’s Food, Drug, and Device Practice encompasses the full range of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, veterinary, food and beverage, dietary supplement, and cosmetics issues. Through our offices in the United States, Europe, and China and a network of local counsel, we advise trade associations, multinational corporations, and emerging companies on a global basis. We are the only firm ranked “Band 1” for Life Sciences across Chambers’ US, UK, Europe, China, and Global surveys.