August 21, 2018

Hatch, the first aquaculture-focused accelerator in the world, is moving to Cork, Ireland, for its second cohort beginning in September.  

Launched in January of this year by CEO Carsten Krome of Alimentos Ventures in Bergen, Norway, Hatch partnered with  NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster and Bergen Teknologioverføring (BTO) to offer innovative early stage aquaculture startups support in the form of capital and business support.

“We see a need for aquaculture start-ups, especially in the health, nutrition, technology and production sectors, to learn what it means to be ‘investment-ready’ in order to raise the necessary funds to scale and realise their full potential,” said Krome at the time.

Beginning with its first cohort in April of this year, Hatch’s first eight-member cohort participated in a three-month long intensive program that included housing at BTO,  €25,000 (US$28,500) in funding, coaching, and access to Hatch’s network of entrepreneurs, industry professionals, and the industries top farmers and suppliers, as well Hatch’s support in securing additional grant funding, and the ability to conduct product trials with the incubator’s R&D partners located across Europe.

“Ultimately, the primary focus of our accelerator will be on building capability in our participants and enabling them to scale their company to match their global ambitions,” said Krome in January. “What we require in return from the founders is 100 percent commitment in terms of time and effort.”

Following a very successful initial program in  Bergen, the accelerator is currently accepting applications through August 24 for its second cohort to begin September 18 through December 6. Program director Wayne Murphy told Seafood Source that half of the eight slots are being allocated to Irish startups.

“In Bergen, we had eight start-ups from seven countries, which went through 30 mentor sessions, met 40 investors from 17 different countries, and got investor-ready in 90 days, said Murphy. “Two of the companies came away with six-figure investments, and a very clear idea of where they were headed in the aquaculture world. All of the companies were delighted with the development experience, unparalleled international networking, and business and investment opportunities they gained.”

Mind the Gap

Driven by macro-trends that include population growth, shifting wealth distribution, and changing dietary demands toward more protein content, investing in aquaculture is becoming a topic earmarked for investor discussions.

“Since 1960, global demand for seafood has increased 3.2 percent annually, outpacing the 1 percent annual growth in the world’s population over the same time period,” noted Philippe de Lapérouse, managing director of HighQuest Group, in the piece Technology Plays in Aquaculture published in the GAI Gazette.

Rising global populations and increasing wealth – particularly in emerging economies – along with diminishing wild fish numbers have put pressure on the aquaculture industry to fill the gap in supply in a sustainable manner – something that is a focus of the Hatch program.

Predictive modeling by The World Bank estimates that by 2030, 62 percent of food fish will be provided through aquaculture, and from 2030 onward, aquaculture will dominate supply in the industry, according to the report, Fish to 2030, Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Eire Agtech

Ireland is quickly making a name for itself, along with Israel, as a hub for agtech advancement. The island nation, which now outranks the U.S. as the most food-secure country in the world, has also outranked the U.S. in agricultural R&D investment – committing more capital than the U.S. over the past five years, according to AgFunder. Together with an advantageous tax structure and a supportive government, Ireland is attracting agtech startups and their investors.

In September of last year, California-based agtech venture pioneer Finistere Ventures announced from its offices in Palo Alto and San Diego that it was partnering with Ireland’s €8.5 billion (US$10 billion) Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) to establish an agtech cluster in Ireland, and to launch the new Ireland AgTech Fund (IAF).  

“We want Ireland to be the AgTech Island – a hub for European AgTech,” said Finistere’s Kieran Furlong. “All the ingredients are here – a long-standing, export-oriented Agri-Food industry; world-leading research at Irish universities and institutions such as Teagasc; and, of course, the thriving IT, biopharma and medtech sectors. AgTech is essentially the combination of all of these, so we see great potential for startups here.”

Amid the Momentum

Amid this momentum and dynamic atmosphere, participants in Hatch’s second program will make presentations to investors, potential partners, and press, as well as to Hatch’s follow-on fund which typically invests between EUR 100,000 and EUR 1 million (US$114,000 – US$1.14 million) in promising companies.

Once the participants have completed the program, Hatch will continue to provide free office space for up to nine months, and will continue to offer a guiding hand to help its companies navigate the often chaotic process of securing funding while also scaling up.

“Part of what we do is to encourage an exchange of knowledge between the cohort, as well as giving them exposure to some of the biggest names in the industry,” Murphy told Seafood Source. “The effect this has on young companies is significant. Given that many of our applicants are only in their twenties or early thirties, having left university brimming with ideas and wanting to build something exciting, our aim is to help them avoid making typical mistakes and thereby re-risk any investment.”

-Lynda Kiernan