Forjazul’s 1-pager

OPPORTUNITY: 

We should bring agro to the ocean to:

• Use the current 2 billion hA of ocean cultivable area.
• Reduce water, fertilizer and pesticide use in agro
• Capture up to 30 times more carbon then land agro

However, agro shows us that no species become a massive crop without a genetic program

SOLUTION: 

We are using genetics and new breeding technologies (CRISPR) to turn the seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii, Kalv, into an oceanic crop. 

NOW IS THE TIME: 

Kalv is a versatile commodity: food stabilizer Carrageenan ($1 billion in 2020), bio-stimulants for plants ($7 billion estimated in 2028), proven concepts fuel, textiles and pharma. Brazil is 2-fold production and 10-fold refinery to 10,000 L/day of bio-stimulants, with margin of over 100%. 

However, demand is limited by trust in the production capacity and investment in production is limited by trust in demand. FORJAZUL will break this vicious cycle with biotech, creating a truly sustainable materials economy w/ massive Kalv culture.

THE COMPANY:

Incorporated as a Delaware C-corp and a Brazilian LTDA company in 2023 based in Rio de Janeiro. With large coastline and progressive regulatory environment, Brazil is the perfect starting point for this global enterprise. 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

• SAFE investments totaling $261,000.
• MOU w/ largest farmers in Brazil.
• Clients from partners on our sales channels.

PRODUCT ROADMAP:

• Replicable quality-controlled WT extracts (6-9 months, $150-200k). Low tech, low risk, cheap and quick effort to market de-risk.
• Gene-edited strain for compound production (9-12 months, $1.5 million). Target a high aggregate value product that will generate a higher margin.
• Gene-edited strain for growth (9-12 months, $1.5 million). Growth and yield-enhanced strains for particular environments.
• Farming module (2-4 years, $10-20 million). Automation for the expansion of farming worldwide.

INVESTMENT INVITATION:

Seeking a $3 million SAFE round with a $20 million cap and 20% discount to accelerate FORJAZUL and transition from a bootstrapped stage to a revenue-generating, commercial entity within 18 months. 

The funds will be utilized across multiple verticals:

• Establish 5ha farm in Brazil ($500k, 6 mth).
• Increase sales low-tech product QC ($250k, 6 mth).
• R&D to deep phenotyping w/ KaGE ($1 M, 9 mth).
• Gene-edited PoC strain ($1 M, 18 mth).
• 1st sales post-regulatory exemption ($250k, 6 mth).

Breakdown From an expenditure standpoint:

• People: $750k; Product development: $1.5M; Farming infrastructure: $500k; Operations: $250k

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: 

Farmers cultivating non-Kalv species, like Kelp Blue in the Netherlands; companies harvesting wild seaweed for biostimulants, such as Acadia in Canada and large Kalv producers like Sea6Energy and Nosy Boraha Seaweed.

What sets FORJAZUL apart from them is grande vision of the seaweed opportunity, our unparalleled expertise in Kalv genetics and biotechnology and track-recorded business savvy to pull it off.

We bootstrapped ($350k over 4 years) KaGE, the Kalv Genome Explorer; an “in silico workbench” using comparative genomics and AI, for gene discovery and ‘deep phenotyping’, putting us YEARS ahead of competition.

FINANCES:

Assuming an 80% adoption rate across Brazil’s existing 10 ha of seaweed farms, our conservative estimates project an annual production of 800,000 liters of seaweed extract. With a production cost of $1 per liter and a selling price of $3 per liter, this equates to annual revenues of $2.4 million and profits of $1.6 million; our 25% share would be $400,000. Scaling this model to 1,000,000 hectares could potentially generate $240 billion in revenue and $160 billion in profits, with a $40 billion share for us.

LEARN MORE:

Watch the founders talking about FORJAZUL, check-out our website and slide-deck. Follow us on Twitter and Linkedin. Download the SAFE and schedule a meeting