Algal Scientific, a Michigan-based (US) biotech company which seeks to improve animal feed and food safety through algae fermentation, is receiving a US$7 million funding for its expansion, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The amount is part of a Series B funding round that was to be announced last month. This investment involves Formation 8 Partners of San Francisco, as well as investment firms from Chicago, US, and Germany.

With the funding, Geoff Horst, Algal's CEO, anticipates that his 13-man staff will increase by 10 more while production capacity could grow to between five-fold and eight-fold in 2015.

The company recently moved to a bigger facility in Plymouth, Michigan, achieving a commercial scale in production capabilities and selling to poultry producers in the US. The new site contains a fermentation tank 20 times larger than its initial 500-litres tank.

"We'll do five to 10 times more volume this year than last," Horst said. He also hopes to see positive revenues in about two years if output and sales is able to fulfill the current projections.

According to the co-founder of Algal, the Vietnamese shrimp industry is one of the company's key clients.

Algal is the brains behind Algamune, supposedly the world's first beta glucan commercially produced from algae.

At a lower cost, Algamune improves immune systems within animals and could to contribute to the future of a lesser need for antibiotics in animal feed.