Coral Vita, a company that supports coral restoration through growing custom coral in land-based farms has raised $8 million in a Series A round. The company crafts tailor-made reef restoration plans and grows the coral for clients including governments, eco-tourism operations and NGOs.
The company recently piloted a land-based coral nursery in Dubai with DP World that, the company said, achieved growing resilient corals 63% faster than in the wild. The partners sourced, grew and restored native coral, strengthening reef resilience and supporting marine life.
“Gator Halpern and I first conceived what would become Coral Vita on the back porch of our house during our master’s program at the Yale School of the Environment, driven by our shared love for the ocean and conviction that there must be better ways to protect it,” said co-founder and Chief Reef Officer Sam Teicher in a LinkedIn post. “We believed others would share our understanding of the immense value beneath the waves. Over a decade ago, our journey began with a $1k grant. And today we’re proving that our belief and mission was the right choice.”
The round was led by impact platform Builder’s Vision, which said it’s the first Series A funding for coral restoration. The company said it has committed $260 million to 158 of its Ocean partners.
“Our two organizations share the understanding that ocean health and economic health go hand in hand,” said Builder’s Vision CEO and founder Lukas Walton in a LinkedIn post. “Coral Vita’s pioneering, scalable solution for reef restoration stood out to us as investors because it creates real global market value that extends well beyond their Bahamian home. They employ cutting-edge genetic technology to enhance coral survivability and have an exciting business model that is seeing strong organic growth and sales from a diverse customer base.”
Since 2021, Teicher said, they’ve grown over 100,000 corals, witnessed fish populations double at our restoration sites, deployed and licensed nature-based tech, and expanded operations across The Bahamas, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the Dutch Caribbean.
“Through it all, we’ve never lost sight of our guiding principle: while our jobs shouldn’t need to exist, we can and will do everything in our power to restore degraded reefs at scale by helping create or power land-based coral farms in every country with reefs and catalyzing a Restoration Economy to preserve the ecosystems that sustain us all.”
