What does a seafood lover do when they become vegan? Create a plant-based fresh seafood alternative. At least that’s what you do if you’re Aki Kaltenbach. And if you’re Kaltenbach, then you go even further and turn that creation into a successful company that sells across Canada and now into the western United States.
Kaltenbach created Save Da Sea in 2019 after working at her family’s Japanese restaurant in Whistler. Her first plan was to sell to restaurants as a vegan alternative, according to the company’s website. But then COVID hit and Kaltenbach focused on putting her product — two types of smoked salmon and a tuna salad — into grocery stores. Now the plant-based seafood is sold at Save On Foods, Country Grocer, Whole Foods and other well-known grocery chains. Most recently, Save Da Sea made its way into Avril Supermarchés in Quebec.
Last May, Save Da Sea received $650,000 in funding from the Business Development Bank of Canada to help the company expand into the U.S., where it has products in 50 stores across the Pacific Northwest.
Save Da Sea now has a 2,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Esquimalt and, in 2021, was a Douglas 10 to Watch award winner.
What makes Save Da Sea’s products unique is their freshness.
There are some frozen plant-based seafood alternatives, Kaltenbach says, but Save Da Sea’s products are fresh packed and kept in the cooler section of stores where you’d find tofu, veggie dogs and other meat substitutes, and not in the freezer section.
The plant-based seafood market is what Kaltenbach calls “a white space” because it is so new and undeveloped — and that means there is plenty of room to grow. The limiting factor is distance: Because the products are fresh they can’t be shipped too far. That’s why California is the next market Save Da Sea plans to target.
Most of the company’s marketing consists of educating customers by letting them know plant-based options are available. So there is in-store sampling and going to specialty consumer shows like Planted Expo that showcase vegan businesses, Kaltenbach says.
Save Da Sea’s BDC funding came through the bank’s Capital Thrive Lab fund, which focuses on women-founded, women-owned companies that are impact driven.
“We’re innately an impact company, just by definition,” Kaltenbach says. “Our whole mission is to help conserve our ocean by inspiring folks to eat more plants.”
