Shinkei Systems

Shinkei Systems is a seafood robotics company founded in 2021 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company applies AI and robotic automation to scale the traditional Japanese practice of ikejime — a humane fish-harvesting method that delivers measurably superior product quality — to commercial fishing fleets across the globe.

The company's flagship device, Poseidon, is installed directly on fishing vessels. When a fish is placed into the machine, a computer-vision system scans it in real time, identifies the species, and precisely locates the brain. Within seconds of the fish leaving the water, the robot spikes the brain and severs the gills, humanely ending the fish's life before it can thrash or undergo the stress response that degrades flesh quality. The entire process takes approximately six seconds per fish.

The benefits of ikejime are well established in Japanese culinary tradition: eliminating the cortisol and lactic-acid stress response preserves muscle texture and flavor, and controlled bleed-out combined with proper nerve-wire technique extends refrigerated shelf life by up to three times compared with conventional harvesting. Shinkei's automation makes this level of quality achievable at industrial throughput for the first time, removing reliance on skilled artisan labor.

Shinkei operates a vertically integrated model: it provides the Poseidon hardware to partner fisheries at no upfront cost and pays fishers a premium for the harvest. It then markets the resulting product under its own consumer brand, Seremoni, which launched in October 2024 with black cod and black sea bass and has expanded to include salmon, rockfish, porgy, and other species. Seremoni-grade fish is distributed in approximately 20 cities worldwide, including major US markets, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Vancouver.

In June 2025 the company raised a USD 22 million Series A round led by Founders Fund and Interlagos Capital, bringing total funding to approximately USD 28.8 million. Earlier backers include Y Combinator and Cantos Ventures. The company has also established a 16,000-square-foot processing facility in Tacoma, Washington — its first fully owned Seremoni Grade processing plant — and relocated its headquarters to a 15,000-square-foot facility in the Standard Works campus in El Segundo in September 2025.

Shinkei's technology addresses systemic quality problems throughout the seafood supply chain, targeting the estimated 70 percent quality degradation that occurs between catch and consumer due to conventional harvesting practices.