Ones to Watch: Sea, Food, Inspired

26 FOOD TECHS TO WATCH IN 2026

‍Monkeys by the Sea is shaping a new culinary category for an ocean under pressure. Founder, Thijs Wullems, and his team craft seafood-inspired products designed from the plate backwards, giving chefs cleaner, more resilient options that still deliver the flavors people love

The challenge shaping the future of seafood is no longer abstract. Demand keeps rising, marine ecosystems keep weakening, and volatility now defines global supply chains. In this space between appetite and ecological limits, Monkeys by the Sea has carved out a distinctly culinary, distinctly pragmatic response. Founder Thijs Wullems, aka ‘Head of the Tribe’, has built the company around a foundational premise: if the ocean can no longer supply enough of the seafood people want, then innovation must build parallel pathways that support chefs, consumers, and ecosystems at the same time.

“Monkeys by the Sea creates seafood-inspired products made from ingredients from the land and sea, offering delicious, ocean-friendly food at scale,” he says. That’s more than a description of what they make; it is a statement about how they want the seafood conversation to evolve. The aim is not to point fingers or shame traditional industries, but to widen the culinary landscape in a way that lightens pressure on wild stocks while giving chefs something genuinely useful.

Wullems believes the seafood category has suffered from a backwards kind of innovation: too many companies start with a technology and then hope chefs will figure out how to use it. Monkeys by the Sea flips that sequence. “We try to design products from the plate backwards, starting with how chefs would like fish to behave in a pan, fryer, or oven,” he continues. That insight guides everything from texture development to ingredient selection.

The result is a standout approach that merges culinary craft with scalable food manufacturing. Tailored texturization, omega fatty acids, seaweed, purified seawater, and microalgae provide flavor and performance, while a focus on undervalued plant-based proteins keeps formulations cost-effective and familiar. Clean, recognizable ingredients underpin the strategy; unnecessary complexity only gets in the way of adoption.

A key difference between Monkeys by the Sea and many players entering the seafood-alternative space is the choice not to rely on high-profile but impractical technologies. “We don’t rely on complicated production technologies such as 3D printing,” Wullems states. If the goal is scale, then the technology stack has to reflect that operational and commercial reality.

Building for kitchens, not press releases

The company’s commercial strategy is food-service first, not because it is easier but because it is the truest test of any product that claims to behave like seafood. Professional kitchens demand consistency, stability, intuitive use, and tight control of holding times. Wullems sees this not as a barrier but as the proving ground.

“Products are optimized for taste, ease of use, holding time, and versatility, so chefs can swap us into classic seafood formats with minimal staff training,” he suggests. Food service also provides rapid feedback: if buyers and chefs return for repeat orders, the product has passed a high bar. Once that foundation is secure, Monkeys by the Sea can extend into catering, meal kits, and eventually retail.

A chef-driven strategy also helps counter the industry’s most persistent misconception. Plant-based seafood is often labeled a niche for vegans or something that cannot match the performance of conventional fish. Wullems sees the opposite. “Most of our customers are flexitarians and our end-users are chefs that are known to be seafood lovers,” he says. Their willingness to serve seafood-inspired products stems from wanting to reduce environmental impact without losing the formats they rely on.

One compliment in particular stayed with Wullems. Chefs told the team they preferred the company’s Ocean Chunks to canned tuna because of the cleaner taste profile and identical protein and omega-3 levels. If traditional products suffer from variations in quality, contaminants, or supply inconsistency, chefs increasingly look for alternatives that keep menus stable.

A year of validation

If 2025 was expected to be difficult for many alternative protein players, Monkeys by the Sea held a steady course. “The fact that we’ve been able to grow our sales volumes in a market that’s generally very tough is a milestone itself,” Wullems believes. Growth came not from retail launches or splashy partnerships, but from steady traction in corporate catering, banks, hospitals, zoos, and large IT companies.

Winning the Fair Future Challenge Award early in the year helped amplify the brand’s mission within the Netherlands, supported by the DOEN Foundation. Even more significant was the company’s inclusion in the Dutch delegation for COP30, which signaled recognition that seafood resilience is now a climate issue, a food-security issue, and a biodiversity issue all at once.

Through tastings, events, and direct engagement with kitchen teams, Monkeys by the Sea strengthened relationships with food-service distributors. These are the partners who bring the products into real operational environments, where feedback loops are measured not in months but in minutes, under everyday service pressure, time constraints, and real-world kitchen demands.

Product-side improvements moved in parallel. The team refined its hero products using chef input, reduced salt levels, and prepared a next wave of innovations. Process optimization proved equally important, as manufacturing efficiency defines how quickly the company can scale.

Most of our customers are flexitarians and our end-users are chefs known to be seafood lovers, but who want to reduce their impact without giving up familiar formats and flavors

Looking to 2026, Wullems wants growth without compromising service, quality, or relationships. “We want to scale responsibly, growing with existing partners while entering a limited number of new geographies and channels where we can properly support distributors and food-service operators,” he says.

The focus going forward will remain on doubling down on best-performing products while continuing to develop new formats through strategic partnerships in both ingredients and processing. These alliances help keep the pipeline dynamic without overstretching internal resources.

The company’s fundraising position reflects that same balance of pragmatism and long-term vision. Their cap table includes investors from sustainable seafood, vegetable processing, and mission-driven funds that understand the slower timelines of physical food production. Wullems highlights Noorderimpact BV, in particular, as an unexpected but fitting partner (see sidebar above). “It’s exactly this kind of industry-agnostic view that will help strengthen our company towards the next phase,” he says, stressing that new investors need not come from food tech alone, as the challenges our ocean faces go far beyond just one industry.

Hard problems, grounded solutions

Entering major distribution channels remains one of the toughest challenges. These networks often operate with entrenched processes and conservative decision-making. And even where sustainability is a stated priority, the say-do gap remains significant. “There’s a lot of talk and good intention about sustainability, but when it comes down to it, people still tend to make the easier and traditional choice,” Wullems says.

He believes two metrics ultimately break through resistance: great-tasting food and strong relationships. The team invests heavily in both. They co-develop with chefs, optimize processes for scale, and focus on formats where plant-based seafood can outperform on texture, flavor, and supply stability.

The technical challenge is equally demanding: crafting delicate, flaky textures while keeping ingredients logical and affordable. “Our relentless curiosity on the side of ingredients and process is ultimately how we address that,” Wullems notes.

He is vocal about the misperceptions that shape the industry narrative. One is the belief that food tech should grow like software. “Building an innovative food company and creating reliable supply chains takes a lot of time, capital, and creativity,” he says. Success looks less like a viral app and more like a community of peers supporting one another through the long arc of change.

He also thinks the field is entering a period of disciplined scaling. Clean ingredients, culinary performance, nutrition, and price parity will matter more than novelty. Hybrid approaches combining plant-based ingredients with fermentation and legacy proteins will likely play a growing role. Digital tools for formulation and climate measurement will become more common, though he is quick to point out that technology cannot replace palate. “AI is far from the answer to every challenge,” Wullems says. “We still need the human touch; there’s a vital connection between our tastebuds and our hearts and minds.”

A movement, not a moment

Monkeys by the Sea tracks its impact across the ocean, the plate, and the value chain. Reducing demand for wild-caught fish and avoiding contaminants such as microplastics are both impact drivers. Ingredient sourcing prioritizes circular and undervalued inputs to improve resilience in the system around them. The company conducts LCAs to measure CO2 impact and continues gathering customer insights through validation interviews and QR-linked feedback.

Social impact comes from something different: the energy of chefs, students, and young professionals who respond to the mission. As the brand grows, that engagement strengthens.

Wullems imagines a 2030 in which seafood-inspired products are mainstream across European food service and select global markets. “We are building a movement,
not just a company,” he says. Success would mean Monkeys by the Sea is recognized as the creator of the category, known for human-led collaboration, consistent quality, and broader representation of women and diverse voices in food-tech leadership.

If that movement succeeds, the future of seafood will be richer, more creative, and far less dependent on ecosystems already stretched thin. Innovation alone cannot repair the ocean, but new culinary pathways can help protect it.