Plant-based startup Oshi is betting that scent – not just taste and texture – will unlock mainstream adoption of plant-based seafood as it raises funding and scales its whole-cut platform across multiple species.
The company’s recent $3 million investment comes from a Latin American seafood manufacturer, with additional backing from Unovis Asset Managee and Alumni Ventures, as well as individual investors tied to Oatly, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.
Oshi, formerly known as Plantish, began as an alternative seafood startup and focused on whole-cut plant-based salmon.
The fresh funding will support the launch of Oshi’s plant-based whitefish line, according to Oshi.
Expanding Oshi beyond a ‘one-product company’
While Oshi’s whole-cut plant-based salmon served as a proof of concept in restaurants, the company is positioning its platform to span multiple seafood varieties. After five years of R&D and early market traction, the company is moving from pilot to national scale, according to Oshi.
Oshi’s whole-cut whitefish fillet, developed over 18 months, uses proprietary technology to replicate the flaky, delicate texture of conventional whitefish, according to the company.
“We realized that true premiumization of plant-based seafood requires satisfying all five senses, and scent was the missing bridge to full consumer acceptance.”
Orek Ron, CEO & co-founder, Oshi
“Whitefish represents a massive, versatile market segment - from fine dining to everyday family meals. Introducing the whitefish line allows us to target different culinary use-cases and broaden our reach in retail, moving Oshi from a ‘one-product company’ to the definitive, go-to brand for the entire sustainable seafood category,” Orek Ron, CEO and co-founder of Oshi, said.
Creating a holistic sensory experience as a key market differentiator
In a category where taste and texture are often treated as table stakes, Oshi is emphasizing scent as a critical third component of the sensory experience – an area it says remains underdeveloped across plant-based meat.
The company’s “ocean-scented” profile is designed to resonate across both retail and foodservice, helping bridge the gap between visual realism and perceived authenticity.
Ron describes scent role in food as “the first trigger of human flavor perception,” and Oshi’s whitefish exhibits a “clean, delicate marine aroma – similar to fresh sea air or a premium sushi-grade catch” intended to create broader appeal.
“When you cook a traditional piece of fish, the aroma sets the entire culinary expectation. In the plant-based space, many products look like fish but fail to smell like it, breaking the illusion immediately. We wanted to capture that authentic ‘ocean-scented’ nostalgia,” he said.
That focus emerged through foodservice testing. Within a year, Oshi expanded into more than 100 restaurants and reports fourfold year-over-year revenue growth – while identifying scent as a key adoption hurdle.
“Consumers were deeply impressed by the appearance and texture of our fillets, but they held back until they smelled it. Olfactory memory is incredibly strong with seafood. If the smell doesn’t match the visual, the brain flags it as artificial,” he said.
The insight reinforced the need for a full sensory approach to drive repeat consumption.
“We realized that true premiumization of plant-based seafood requires satisfying all five senses, and scent was the missing bridge to full consumer acceptance,” he said.
Building a whole-cut fish filet
While the broader plant-based seafood category has leaned on formats like breaded, minced or mixed products, whole cuts remain difficult to scale due to structural and ingredient complexity – an opportunity Oshi has targeted with its technology.
Oshi’s technology uses modular layering techniques and machinery that assemble key components like proteins and fats to recreate the flakiness of traditional fish – allowing the company to potentially explore other fish species.
“Consumers want a premium center-of-the-plate protein – a real piece of salmon or whitefish that cooks, flakes and cuts like the real thing. Oshi is filling that exact gap with our patented technology,” Ron explained.
Retail expansion supported via plug-and-play manufacturing model
The company is now preparing to expand into 686 retail doors through distributors KeHE and UNFI, with placements at Lassens, Mother’s Market and Earth Fare.
To support that scale-up, Oshi is using a “plug-and-play” manufacturing model that integrates its equipment into existing facilities, avoiding the cost of building new plants. Ron says this approach has reduced production costs by over 80%, helping move toward price parity with conventional fish.
Designing a product around existing infrastructure
One of the broader challenges in alternative protein manufacturing is the cost of building new production facilities, as capital for dedicated factories has become harder to secure. Increasingly, startups are turning to existing infrastructure as a more capital-efficient and investor-friendly approach.
Companies like animal-free dairy producer Aux Labs, for example, use existing breweries to produce fermentation-derived casein – a model that, like Oshi’s, centers on platforms that can expand across multiple product categories.
Oshi takes a similar approach, bringing its patented equipment into established facilities to enable faster scaling without heavy capex requirements.
Investors say that process advantage is critical in a category that has historically struggled to scale.
Björn Öste, Co-Founder of Oatly and Oshi investor, describes plant-based fish as “a brutally tough challenge” but Oshi stood out for its production process.
“They have a real shot at defining this category,” Öste said.
Beyond capital, Oshi says the strategic investor brings “industry operational expertise, massive supply chain networks and global distribution channels” across Latin America and international markets.
“More importantly, it represents a historic industry shift: when one of the largest traditional seafood manufacturers validates our technology by investing in us, it proves that the seafood industry views alternative proteins not as a threat, but as the future of food security,” Ron added.
