Jen Levin and her colleagues Kelsey O’Connor and Brendan Landry each showing off one of their favorite fish: Redfish, Pollock, and Monkfish. (Photo credit: Gulf of Maine Research Institute)

True Fin, one of the first businesses launched and stewarded through GMRI’s Gulf of Maine Ventures initiative, recently completed a fully subscribed raise of $1 million in convertible notes.

 The newly raised capital, the company’s first outside investment, comes from the Maine Venture Fund, Maine Technology Institute, CEI and several private individuals.

 The company was recently rebranded to True Fin, having been launched in 2019 under the name of Gulf of Maine Sashimi as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. 

True Fin sells premium fish from Gulf of Maine fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts directly to home chefs and restaurants.

“The recent capital raise will allow us to invest in new equipment to process more fish more quickly and provide cash flow to build inventory, expand our staff, support our new brand, and e-commerce website,” Jen Levin, True Fin’s CEO, told Maine Startups Insider.

True Fin recently launched a new consumer-facing e-commerce site where home chefs can purchase sustainably harvested Gulf of Maine seafood that has been ultra-frozen for maximum freshness. The company uses a specialized fast-freeze machine imported from Japan to rapidly freeze perfect filets.

“We are truly the chef’s choice of seafood. Several of our loyal customers are Michelin Star restaurants and James Beard Award winning chefs,” said Levin. 

The company works directly with fishermen to implement specialized fish handling practices to ensure the highest quality product. In return, fishermen receive premium prices for their catch.  In this way, True Fin is the solution to the persistent problems of low prices and diminished landings for locally harvested Gulf of Maine fish.

“We are a mission-driven company that is committed to providing our customers with healthy, sustainable, and delicious fresh fish from the Gulf of Maine,” explained Levin. 

True Fin’s goal is to send more money back to the boat so fishermen can afford to fish sustainably. The company competes on quality, not volume. It also wants to help market more varieties of fish to increase fishermens’ revenue streams. A good example are Cusk and Dogfish, two new fish that True Fin is offering chefs and home cooks. 

“These have long been considered to be low value fish by fishermen and are often thrown back as by-catch. We have worked closely with the fishermen and customers to demonstrate that they are in fact delicious options when properly handled. Cusk is now a True Fin favorite,” Levin said.

True Fin now has 6.5 full-time equivalent employees and expects to hire another 4 by the end of the year. The company has a goal to double sales for the rest of 2021, driven partially by their new online direct-to-consumer sales model. While the company is not yet profitable, the team is projecting to reach cashflow break even within 12 months. 

“I am incredibly proud of the hard-work and progress that the True Fin team has accomplished since launching in 2019,” said Blaine Grimes, GMRI’s Chief Venture Officer. “This is exactly how we envisioned Gulf of Maine Ventures would work.”

Gulf of Maine Ventures is a strategic initiative of GMRI tasked with combining the organization’s technical expertise with business formation to support ocean entrepreneurship.

“GMRI’s Venture Team supported True Fin during its startup phase with the goal of helping the company get to the point where it could attract private investment and experienced advisors,” Grimes said. “The team at GMRI looks forward to following the company’s success from here.”

GMRI in June spun off and sold one of its other incubated startups, New England Marine Monitoring.