Pacific Hybreed, an aquaculture biotechnology startup based in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island, has closed a $1 million funding round with backing from Hawaii Angels, an angel investor company, and Blue Startups, a venture accelerator, both based in Hawaii.
The company — which breeds high-performance oyster and clam seeds — was co-founded in 2014 in Washington state by Joth David and Dennis Hedgecock and expanded to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority in Kailua-Kona in 2020. David and Hedgecock are no longer active in day-to-day operations, but they both serve on the board of directors. Melissa DellaTorre, based in Kona, joined Pacific Hybreed in 2022 and was named CEO in 2023.
Pacific Hybreed operates hatcheries in both Kona and Washington. The Kona facility serves as the company production site, while the facility in Washington focuses on breeding. The company plans to use the $1 million in new funding to expand the commercial-scale seed production at the Kona facility, increasing output from 25 million seeds per year to 200 million. The investment will also support efforts to broaden the species bred beyond Pacific oysters.
Pacific Hybreed develops the high-performance oyster and clam seed through an advanced hybrid breeding technique that does not involve genetic modification, but rather builds on traditional selective breeding techniques. Families of oysters and clams at the Kona facility are bred and then separated for the ones that grow faster or have good survival rates. Those are the oysters and clams that are then commercially produced for the farmers.
The company is working toward finding better breeding combinations to customize the oysters and clams for different environments and to create a uniform breeding schedule.
“Oysters and clams, they grow at really variable rates. So, some can grow twice as fast as others. [Farmers] have to keep harvesting every cage throughout the whole year,” DellaTorre said. “What we’re trying to do is really reduce farm labor by having uniform, consistent growth and more predictable harvesting schedules.”
Pacific Hybreed sells to more than 20 farmers up and down the Pacific Coast including Alaska, Washington, California, Canada and Mexico. The startup also works with Kauai Sea Farm and is working on expanding its buyers in Hawaii.
“When we stocked Pacific Hybreed seed while we were growing oysters, we consistently found more uniform growth and very few double set oysters,” Dave Anderson, product manager at Kauai Sea Farm, said in a statement. “Growing oysters in Hawaii can be more labor-intensive than farming in cooler regions, so the performance and quality of each individual oyster seed is critical.”
The uniform growth helps shellfish farmers avoid losing a significant portion of their crop before harvest due to environmental stressors and inconsistent seed performance. The seed produced by Pacific Hybreed has shown 30% greater yield and up to 50% reductions in harvesting costs due to uniform growth.
Pacific Hybreed received support and matching funds from the HSBIR program administered by HTDC. This article appeared in Pacific Business News (By Nichole Villegas | May 6, 2026)