Origin by Ocean turns seaweed into ingredients for the global cosmetics industry

Founded in 2019, Origin by Ocean is a biochemical company whose solution is to process seaweed into ingredients for use in cosmetics, textiles and the food industries. 

Seas carry a heavy nutrient load and suffer from widespread eutrophication due to human activity. The founder of Origin by Ocean, Mari Granström, had the idea of using components of brown algae in consumer products such as cosmetics. For example, sargassum seaweed is a type of brown algae and poses a significant environmental and socio‑economic challenge in the Caribbean. 
 
“We want to create regenerative business that helps improve the conditions of marine ecosystems. Our operations generate wellbeing where environmental challenges are the greatest – for example in Grenada or the Dominican Republic – meaning that the positive impacts are also greater,” notes Heikki Heiskanen, Chief Operating Activist of Origin by Ocean.  

Sustainability is at the heart of Origin by Ocean’s solution. Ingredients derived from algae can replace fossil‑based substances in the cosmetics industry, while residual biomass from the processing process can be used as animal feed. 
 
The company seeks global growth. Its end-customers in the manufacturing industry can be found across Europe, Asia and the Americas – wherever chemicals are used. 

Origin by Ocean’s patented biorefining process is built on a strong research and development (R&D) base. Business Finland’s funding has enabled the company, among other things, to strengthen its capital base and research collaboration. 
 
“Origin by Ocean has developed a completely new innovation with significant competitiveness and commercial potential in both international markets and Finland. R&D funding has been used to accelerate the development of the solution as it improves the international growth prospects of the company,” says Lari Rajantie, Chief Funding Advisor at Business Finland. 
 
The company also made use of Business Finland -offered complementary top-up funding linked to an R&D project, meant for sustainable co-development in developing markets. The top-up funding has enabled Origin by Ocean to develop upstream production concepts together with local partners in the Dominican Republic. At the upstream end of the value chain, partners for innovation collaboration have included a university, a logistics service provider and a company in the hotel business. 
 
“We jointly built a supply chain for sargassum and the capabilities related to it. For example, we transferred knowledge related to analytical methods to a local university, enabling them to carry out sugar analyses in their own laboratories,” Heiskanen explains. 
 
“The hotel company is a major local landowner for whom sargassum is a significant problem. Together with them, we developed a pre-processing terminal, while the logistics company, in turn, developed the seaweed transport and storage chain,” Heiskanen continues. 
 
“International innovation collaboration can enhance competitiveness and accelerate growth of companies in many ways across the value chain,” says Kiira Kärkkäinen, Head of International Innovation Collaboration at Business Finland. 
 
In addition to Business Finland, the broader Team Finland network has opened doors to local stakeholders and helped the company become familiar with the local operating culture. 
 
“The networks, particularly in the Caribbean, have been of great benefit to us. For example, with the support of Finnish ambassadors, we have been able to establish contacts with local companies and political decision-makers,” Heiskanen says. 

The Horizon Europe programme has also helped accelerate Origin by Ocean’s journey, enabling it to participate in large consortium projects. These have provided the company with valuable international visibility and networks across the research community and other stakeholder groups. 

Origin by Ocean is currently seeking financing for a small but commercially viable processing plant in Kokkola. Raw material collected in the Caribbean is transported to Finland for further processing. 
 
In the future, Origin by Ocean aims to decentralise its operations so that seaweed can be collected and further processed where it grows. At present, there is no commercial logistics network for sargassum. 
 
“Sargassum is a problem on the scale of tens of millions of tonnes, but limited commercial availability constrains operations and supply is characterised by seasonality. Our aim is to tackle the supply challenge and enable year-round operations,” Heiskanen says. 
 
Over time, the partner network will enable global expansion and larger local investments. European raw materials also feature in the company’s outlook for the 2030s. 
 
“The idea is to cultivate bladderwrack in the Baltic Sea. It is one of the Baltic Sea’s ‘good’ species, so we do not want to harvest algae growing naturally, but cultivation would allow us to remove nitrogen from the sea,” Heiskanen explains.