Scottish fishtech startup Rooser has gained backing by Index Ventures, Google Ventures and Point Nine Capital to boost its online platform.

The cloud-based platform can be used to trade seafood between buyers and suppliers with the aim of reducing wastage and increasing margins.

Fish traders can upload and manage their own online store, allowing them to sell to existing customers or search new markets.

Buyers can filter by species, fishing area, method, delivery time and quality.

Rooser will use the new funding to scale its trading platform and build its marketplace, as well as developing its stock management software for primary processors, quality controls, supply chain financing and personalised features.

The Scottish fishtech firm, which is currently trading across 13 different countries, performs quality checks for both buyers and sellers – allowing for greater accountability, higher quality produce and faster payments.

Commenting on the funding, Joel Watt, chief executive at Rooser said: “The seafood industry is like this giant machine, with all these gears turning all the time at breakneck speed; I saw the chaos for myself.

“Rooser was what we hacked together to solve the problem for our factory, and we realised the opportunity when other processors started wanting the software for themselves – in the long run, what we’re building should help us to understand and manage global fish stocks more responsibly, to see where our seafood comes from and to ensure the best-quality produce ends up on our plates.”

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More than €140bn worth of fish is exchanged within Europe every year, with 35,000 different items being traded between around 140,000 businesses.

For every two fish that makes it to a plate, one goes to waste, which prioritises a focus on building a strong marketplace and stock management platform for primary processors, Rooser said.

The company added that it will work on improved quality controls, supply chain financing and personalised features for buyers and sellers. It is planning to eventually use the data on its platform to generate meaningful insights, models and reports for users.

Georgia Stevenson, a partner at Index Ventures, said: “The seafood market is huge, but it’s fragmented and mostly offline.

“Rooser promises to make the whole experience simpler and more efficient for everyone in the value chain – improving margins, reducing waste, giving buyers greater choice and sellers a bigger market.”

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