ImpacFat partners with M3TRIQ to use AI in bid to cut cultivated fish fat production costs

Singapore-based cultivated fat startup ImpacFat has entered a strategic collaboration with Malaysian AI company M3TRIQ to apply artificial intelligence to the development of cultivated fish fat, with the aim of reducing production costs and improving manufacturing efficiency.

• ImpacFat partnered with M3TRIQ to apply AI-enabled ingredient discovery to cultivated fish fat production.
• M3TRIQ's AI platform was used to identify ingredients that could improve cell culture yields while lowering production costs.
• The companies said the collaboration could have future applications in other biomanufacturing sectors, including human biopharmaceutical production.

The partnership combines ImpacFat's cultivated fish fat platform with M3TRIQ's agentic AI technologies for protein and molecule design to support the commercial readiness of cultivated fish fat production.

Under the agreement, M3TRIQ will use its proprietary AI workflow for molecular and ingredient discovery to identify ingredients designed to reduce costs and increase yields within ImpacFat's cell culture process. The companies said the work is intended to improve process efficiency while maintaining quality, scalability and industrial relevance.

ImpacFat develops cultivated fish fat rich in omega-3 fatty acids for use in applications including dietary supplements, functional foods, skincare and alternative proteins. Like many companies developing cultivated ingredients, it faces the challenge of lowering manufacturing costs to support commercial scale production.

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly common tool across the alternative protein sector, with companies using machine learning and generative AI to accelerate ingredient discovery, optimize fermentation and cell culture processes, and identify new functional molecules. By combining AI with cultivated fat production, ImpacFat and M3TRIQ hope to shorten development timelines while improving production economics.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the collaboration, Mandy Hon, ImpacFat Co-founder & CEO, said: "Our collaboration with M3TRIQ marks an exciting step in combining cutting-edge AI with our proprietary stem-cell platform to advance the future of cultivated fish fat."

She added: "By leveraging AI-enabled ingredient discovery, we aim to accelerate innovation, optimise bioprocessing, and bring scalable, sustainable omega-3 solutions closer to commercialization."

Hon also said the partnership reflects a wider trend in biotechnology.

"At ImpacFat, we believe the next wave of biotechnology will be driven by the convergence of AI and life sciences. This partnership brings us another step closer to our vision of improving healthspan through transformative innovation."

While the initial focus is on cultivated fish fat, the companies said they see opportunities to apply the technology in other areas of biomanufacturing. According to the announcement, similar improvements in cell culture efficiency could also benefit human biopharmaceutical production, where manufacturing costs remain a key consideration.

The companies said they share a vision of building a more resilient and resource-efficient bioeconomy in Asia and described the collaboration as an important step toward delivering scalable ingredient solutions for regional and international partners.

The announcement adds to a growing number of collaborations between biotechnology developers and AI specialists as companies seek to improve the economics of sustainable ingredient production. For cultivated food companies in particular, reducing the cost of cell culture remains one of the industry's biggest commercial hurdles, making advances in process optimization an important area of research.

The expansion builds on technology milestones achieved over the past year. In October 2025, ImpacFat announced it had developed what it described as the world's first cultivated omega-3 fish fat, designed for use in food, dietary supplements, cosmetics and personal care applications. (Link to October 7, 2025 story.)

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