Cultivating seaweed on land
How can you grow seaweed on land? That may not sound very obvious, but Sander Steenacker and Hendrik Bekaert make it work. To accomplish this, they can rely on financial support from VLAIO. They founded a company and gave it the fitting name Oceanbites. In the meantime, they have also become a member of Blue Cluster.
Gold fever
Sander previously worked in the temporary employment sector and then trained to become an independent banker. But secretly he dreamed of a company with (sustainable) impact. He quit his job and, while looking for innovative ideas, he read an article about the ‘green gold’. Seaweed. Sander was immediately won over by the potential of that product.
"Together with Hendrik Bekaert, we decided to set up a company,” says Sander. “That wasn’t easy, because we weren’t biologists and we didn’t know anything about seaweed (laughs). But we were convinced of the positive impact of the product. Our first idea was to buy seaweed and then do product development, in order to introduce seaweed into people’s diets.”
“But the more we delved into the subject, the clearer it became that supply would be the major challenge for the future. As the demand for seaweed is growing enormously and wild harvesting is being restricted, we decided to focus on cultivation instead of product development.”

Filtered seawater
When you think of growing seaweed, most people immediately think of the sea, but the founders decided to cultivate seaweed on land. Sander: “As I said, I come from the banking world, so I knew something about risk management. You have a lot of unpredictable factors offshore: the weather, the quality of the water, bacteria, etc. "
"In short, you actually have hardly any control over your production. For a start-up, that is too great a risk. If the first harvest fails, we could pack up immediately. Cultivation on land turned out to be a viable alternative: by working with filtered seawater under controlled conditions, you get a pure and healthy product that really tastes like seaweed and does not have the salty taste of the product cultivated or harvested in the sea. "
"Not that production was immediately obvious, mind you", laughs Sander. The seaweed that we selected – Palmaria Palmata or dulse – is essentially a tidal species: it thrives ideally in rocky coastal areas. In addition to stable cultivation, you must also be able to grow it at an acceptable price."

"Cultivation is only one aspect; you want to end up with a product you can make a margin on – and cultivation on land is a lot more expensive. In short, the transition to land-based cultivation took us a good two years of R&D."
"But it has miraculously succeeded. In April 2024, we received permission from the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain to market our seaweed. And because there is still a lot of optimisation possible, we are currently looking for a production location to be able to scale up."
"We are deliberately keeping the current site small-scale so as to reduce costs and focus on research. Today we harvest about ten kilograms per week, but this should be significantly higher at the second location."
Green and growth margin
An innovative and sustainable project concerning a product with plenty of room for growth: not surprisingly, VLAIO became involved. OceanBites has benefited greatly from the support and collaboration.
Sander: “A starter trajectory at Unizo brought us into contact with VLAIO business advisor Emily Verhelst. She helped us to refine our ideas even more. We subsequently applied for innovative starter support, a fixed support amount of EUR 50,000 and further guidance."
"This was truly a blessing for us. There are very few financing options for aquaculture in Belgium: for example, we could not get a bank guarantee and PMV does not intervene in aquaculture either."
"It may be harsh to say, but it is quite likely that OceanBites would not have existed without that innovative starter support.”
Sander and Hendrik have had an impressive journey. Despite my initial doubts – did their thorough preliminary research outweigh the lack of scientific background? – they have surprised me enormously in terms of drive, ambition and talent for entrepreneurship.

Emily Verhelst
“Apart from the financial support, we also benefitted significantly from the opening up of their network. For example, VLAIO put us in touch with Blue Cluster, the Belgian network of innovative organisations in the sustainable blue economy, and with BOIP, the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property.
That was essential as we had done two years of R&D and wanted to protect that know-how. In addition, to qualify for larger European subsidies you have to be able to demonstrate that you have adequately protected your knowledge and that the idea cannot simply be copied.
“Opening up that network was very useful for us. There aren’t that many innovative start-ups in the food sector. So every contact that can help us move forward is particularly valuable.”
After the innovative start-up support, a feasibility study was conducted to further optimise seaweed cultivation, both in terms of nutrients and light. Now that that process has been successfully completed, a development subsidy is now in the pipeline and the founders are also looking at an SME growth subsidy to recruit a person with a strategic profile in the short term.
Cash flow positive
Sander: “As mentioned, we are looking for a second site to scale up our production and become a cash flow positive company. But for the future, I mainly dream of a company that has both vertical and horizontal integration and can therefore also develop other types of seaweed."
"In addition, we do not only want to offer seaweed fresh, but also in dried varieties so that we can really become an established company within the seaweed sector. As long as we keep in mind that we have to grow tasty products first and foremost."
"As a matter of fact, you can talk a lot about how sustainable, healthy and nutritional your product is, but the most important guarantee for success is that the consumer likes the taste of your product.”
This article was originally published in Dutch on the VLAIO website within the scope of the Entrepreneurial Stories series. The article was translated into English and slightly modified by Blue Cluster. All pictures © Oceanbites.