Bellingham startup Tidal Vision is turning to the deep sea for innovation.
Tidal Vision, founded in 2015, extracts a biomolecule called chitosan from crab shells that can be used for water treatment, agriculture and textiles in place of toxic or non-biodegradable materials. It's part of the company's goal to create a sustainable product that doesn't compromise on price or performance.
"Our key stock comes from a literal problematic byproduct, versus heavy metals that need to be mined and refined, or petroleum products that are subject to varying oil prices," said Craig Kasberg, co-founder and CEO of Tidal Vision.
Chitosan can bind to heavy metals and other pollutants in stormwater using what is called a cationic charge, which in turn cleans the water for use. Chitosan can also reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture.
The material comes from crustacean shells, and although Tidal Vision can use lobster and shrimp shells, the company currently uses only crab shells from a seafood plant in Bellingham that processes for multiple crabbing companies.
Tidal Vision has two facilities in Bellingham. One is a roughly 7,000-square-foot processing plant. The other is a 51,000-square-foot facility for making chitosan as well as for research and development. The company also has a roughly 24,000-square-foot facility in South Carolina for taking the chitosan and turning it into the final formula.
Kasberg said Tidal Vision has about 40 employees. He added that seafood companies used to dump crab shells back into the ocean, but that practice is no longer allowed because the shells take a long time to biodegrade. Instead of letting the shells go to landfills, Tidal Vision isolates the chitosan from the shells using its proprietary technology and sells what remains to a fertilizer company.
Tidal Vision announced Wednesday it has acquired ViaeX Technologies, a Bay Area startup that also focuses on chitosan innovations. ViaeX's sole employee, Vivian Qu, is joining Tidal Vision as chief product officer. Qu will relocate to Washington sometime in the next six to nine months, according to Kasberg, and the ViaeX brand will fold into Tidal Vision. The companies aren't disclosing the financial terms of the deal.
"We have all the IP, all the trademarks and things like that. Those will still exist, and we'll be integrating some of those into our different product lines," Kasberg said.
