Conversation with Ofek Ron of Oshi

Plenty more fish in the sea? Not really. And this is what Ofek Ron, CEO and Co-Founder of Oshi, set out to solve for. He’s developed one of the best plant-based salmons on the market and the first and only one available within the U.S., and now he’s looking to expand it into U.S. restaurant chains and corporate canteens.

You might not know Ofek Ron, but he probably already knows you. He’s the definition of a superconnector and a community builder in the FoodTech ecosystem. I first met him in 2001.

FTW: Ofek, please tell our readers a bit about yourself and how you ended up doing plant-based seafood.

Ofek: “I started my career  in the food field after becoming vegan 13 years ago. I joined Vegan Friendly as a volunteer, and became a founding board member. I never thought it’d become my day job. I saw we could make an impact on people’s eating decisions. I was actually in tech, where I managed a tech company called Software Sources. I took the company from a few millions to above ten millions in revenue, and thought this would be my career.

At Vegan Friendly, I realized there was a big unmet gap in the market. We saw that a lot of people were looking for fish alternatives and were unhappy with the existing options. I was convinced there was a need to create the Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat of fish. So I established Oshi (then called Plantish) with 3 amazing PhDs (Ron Sicsic, Ariel Szklanny, and Hila Elimelech) in March 2021 based on a mission — to create a great plant-based fish filet.”

FTW: How is seafood a problem?

Ofek: “Fish is the main source of proteins for billions of people. But fish are disappearing from the oceans. We have better nets, and better tech to fish more and more from the ocean. If you grow broccoli and harvest it all, you can do the same thing the next year. But in the oceans, if you take out all the fish, there’s no fish to repopulate. We might end up with empty oceans, and no one wants a fishless ocean. Even when you look at aquaculture, a lot of their food comes from the ocean. Small fish are taken from the ocean, and fed to e.g. farmed salmon. Plus there’s a lot of pollution around aquaculture farms. 

There’s also mercury and microplastics in the oceans, which get into our food and our bodies. And aquaculture still sees high antibiotics use. Plus, salmon grown in aquaculture are flown from Chile and Norway across the world to the consumers. It’s just not environmentally friendly.

Basically, if we don’t find anything to stop people from eating fish, we’ll have a serious problem.

I felt there were no good plant-based fish alternatives in the market. Nothing that spoke to the mass market. And it’s easier to reach price parity with fish, than ground beef. I found 3 PhDs who were mission aligned. They joined the company to help me create the fish filet.”

FTW: So how does one create a fish filet?

Ofek: “We invented a new technology called modular layering, where we create the filet layer by later — and not voxel by voxel (dot by dot) as with 3D printing. We started with 3D printing but moved away from it because of scale; this production approach takes too much time.

Modular layering is what allowed us to launch our flagship product, the salmon filet, after just 2.5 years of work. And we have a product that really works.

It took a team of mechanical engineers, food scientists, and food developers. We invented a machine for modular layering that is scalable, and is already in a production facility in California. The machine can do a specific shape of flakes, and it’s fast. It shapes and places. In 2-3 years it’ll be as fast as extrusion.”

FTW: And what are the ingredients?

Ofek: “Soy and mycelium-based proteins, plus vegetable and algae oils. Then there are less than 2% of flavors, colors, and additives.

FTW: If Oshi is succesful, what will it enable?

Ofek: “We will save lots of fish in the oceans, obviously. The fish in the oceans keep the oceans alive, and it keeps birds alive, and keeps people in developing countries less hungry. It’s a huge ecosystem. But saving the oceans means we need to stop polluting the oceans.”

FTW: What is your business model?

Ofek: “We are doing both B2B and B2C. We’re currently selling in many restaurants in the U.S. It’s still in a pilot phase. So we are selective around where we sell. We’re looking to expand to more doors now that we’re about to install the next generation of our modular layering machine.

We got commitments from retailers to launch next year. The main focus is in the U.S., but we also have contracts with a supermarket chain in Europe which is present in several countries.”

FTW: I heard the words ‘pilot phase’. So how much do you actually produce? And what does it cost to buy?

Ofek: “We’re already producing. By the end of the year, we can do 3,000 filets per shift, at 125 grams (appr. 4.4 oz) each. So that’s about 300 kg per shift, and we can potentially do 3 shifts in a day.

The price point for the restaurant is currently $5.5 per filet. That’s in parity with high-end salmon, but still 30%-40% more expensive than the cheap mass-market salmon. We will bring the price down over time.”

FTW: Do you think alternative seafood can ever become a big market?

Ofek: “Alt meat is 1.6% of the total meat market. We should be able to get to a similar percentage point for alt seafood. The addressable market in the U.S. is considered to be $1.5B by 2031 for alt seafood. It also depends on other players doing great jobs. If other players do a bad job, it will make consumers less excited.

15% of U.S. families have meat alternatives in the households — weekly or monthly. That’s the customer base currently excited about alt proteins. We want to do more than that.”

FTW: How big is your team?

Ofek: “We have 20 people on the team. We’ll move people a bit more into sales, operations, and scaling up. We’re trying to stay small.”

FTW: What’s next for Oshi?

Ofek: “We’re launching a third version of our salmon; in terms of flavor and texture, it’s a level above everything we’ve done so far. We sent samples of it to our current customers, so they could sell it for one night, and they said consumers loved this version. 

For our next products, we will not try to mimic a specific species. When someone is eating plant-based salmon, they get that they’re eating an alternative to salmon, we don’t want to be an alternative to a specific fish but to be an alternative to eating fish in general. Our next fish will be a novel fish and will be derived from algae to be delicious, and It’s not like any other fish you’ve ever had. It’s the Oatly way. It will remind you of the flavors from fish. Actually, the cofounder of Oatly, Björn Öste, just joined as an advisor for our Board.

FTW: Are you fundraising?

Ofek: “No. We have raised $14.5M in funding so far, and we’re executing on our roadmap.”

FTW: What do you need right now?

Ofek: “We want to get warm intros to U.S. restaurant chains, and U.S. corporate customers (such as big Bay Area companies with office canteens). We want to get in touch with their chefs.

FTW: OK, and how can people can in touch with you?

Ofek: “Email me!”