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§ Private Profile · San Diego, CA, USA
Social enterprise operating land-based coral farms to grow climate-resilient corals for reef restoration services to coastal clients.
Coral Vita is a Bahamas-based marine conservation company that operates commercial land-based farms to grow climate-resilient corals for reef restoration. Utilizing microfragmentation and assisted evolution techniques, the organization accelerates coral growth up to 50 times faster than natural rates and achieves out-planting survival rates of up to 90 percent. The for-profit enterprise has cultivated over 100,000 corals across 52 species, generating multimillion-dollar revenues by providing restoration services to resorts, developers, and coastal insurers. Coral Vita has secured backing from organizations including DP World, which provided £500,000 in funding, and receives consulting support from Deloitte. The company won Prince William's Earthshot Prize in 2021 and was hired to operate the initial phase of a large-scale coral restoration project at NEOM in Saudi Arabia. The organization was founded in 2015 by Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern.
Coral Vita has raised $10.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Coral Vita has raised $10.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Coral Vita has raised $10.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $8.0M Series A in July 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 27, 2025 | $8M Series A | — | Christian Nielsen, JIM Salem, Kate James, Mariano Battan, Olavo Mutarelli, Ialumbra, Katapult Ocean | Announced |
| Jan 1, 2021 | $2M Seed | MAX Altman, MAX Scherzer, Builders Initiative | 8090 Industries, AT ONE Ventures, Bling Capital, Boost VC, CP Ventures, Craft Ventures, Goat Capital, Goodwater Capital, Invariantes Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Quest Venture Partners, Saga, Y Combinator, SAM Altman, Scott Cunningham, Vivek Garipalli, Erica Scherzer | Announced |
Coral Vita has raised $10.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Coral Vita's investors include Christian Nielsen, Jim Salem, Kate James, Mariano Battan, Olavo Mutarelli, iAlumbra, Katapult Ocean, Max Altman, Max Scherzer, Builders Initiative, 8090 Industries, At One Ventures.
Coral Vita is a U.S.-based mission-driven technology company that builds scalable land-based coral farms to restore degraded reefs worldwide.[2][1] It grows diverse, climate-resilient corals up to 50x faster using microfragmentation and assisted evolution, then transplants them to threatened reefs, serving coastal hotels, governments, insurers, cruise operators, and communities reliant on reefs for protection, fisheries, and tourism worth $2.7 trillion annually.[1][2][6] The company solves global coral degradation—over 50% of reefs dead and 90% at risk—through a profitable "restoration-as-a-service" (RaaS) model funded by eco-tourism, adopt-a-coral programs, tech licensing, and conservation finance, enabling large-scale restoration that each farm could supply for an entire nation's reefs.[1][2][4] With operations starting in Grand Bahama and expanding to the Caribbean and Middle East, Coral Vita has shown growth via awards like the 2021 Earthshot Prize and partnerships with marine institutes.[2][5]
Coral Vita was founded in 2015 by Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern, environmental entrepreneurs from Yale School of the Environment's master's program.[2][5] The idea emerged from a Yale Entrepreneurship Institute Venture Creation Program, where a $1,000 grant took them to the Florida Keys to meet Dr. David Vaughan of Mote Marine Lab, who discovered microfragmentation in 2014 to grow corals 50x faster; they convinced him to advise on commercializing it alongside Dr. Ruth Gates' assisted evolution techniques.[3][2] Pivotal early moments included launching the world's first commercial land-based coral farm in Freeport, Grand Bahama, in 2019, approved via local environmental impact assessments, and hiring Steven Ranson as chief science officer from Hawaii's coral facility.[3][7][1] This evolved from a class project into global scaling, blending science with a revenue-driven model superior to NGO or government efforts.[4][3]
Coral Vita rides the climate tech and blue economy wave, addressing reef collapse from warming oceans and acidification amid rising demand for nature-based solutions in a $2.7 trillion reef-dependent economy.[2][6][7] Timing aligns with global urgency—90% reefs at risk—fueled by market forces like insurers and tourism seeking shoreline protection, plus conservation finance and Earthshot Prize recognition.[1][5] It influences the ecosystem by pioneering for-profit restoration scalable via tech (e.g., AI-optimized farming), creating jobs, education centers, and models others replicate, shifting from aid-dependent efforts to self-sustaining businesses that boost biodiversity and community welfare.[4][6][7]
Coral Vita is poised to expand its global farm network, duplicating the Bahamian model across oceans with added financing for R&D in AI, robotics, and coastal tech to hit unprecedented restoration scales.[1][7] Trends like advancing climate resilience, blue economy growth, and corporate nature-positive mandates will propel it, potentially influencing policy and spawning imitators in reef-dependent regions.[2][4] Its for-profit edge could evolve it into a reef restoration leader, tying back to its origins: turning Yale classroom science into a resilient ocean safeguard for generations.[3][5]