Aquaculture tech startup Umitron announced it has lifted its latest funding round by $3.7 million.
Originally announced in June of this year, the company raised initial funding in the amount of $11.2 million SGD (US$8.22 million), through a round co-led by Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and D4V (Design for Ventures), and including IDEO, and unnamed angel investors.
On September 11 the company made a follow-on statement announcing the expansion of the round by $3.7 million with the addition of SPARX Group’s Mirai Creation Fund to its investors, bringing total investment in this round to $15.2 million.
This capital raising represents the largest round of initial funding raised by an aquaculture tech startup to date, according to the company, which plans to use the funds to strengthen its existing business and R&D activities.
Based in Singapore and Japan, Umitron is an aquatech data company that employs IoT, satellite remote sensing, and AI to develop computerized sustainable aquaculture production models. With the goal of improving safety, sustainability, and supply of aquatic resources, Umitron models “computerized optimal aquaculture through data conversion of the ocean and pond,” according to the company website.
With the expanded funding, Umitron also announced its goal to expand its services by providing reliable data for the aquaculture insurance industry that will help determine risk and quantify the asset value of fishes.
A New Class
Driven by macro-trends that include population growth, shifting wealth distribution, and changing dietary demands toward more protein content, investing in aquaculture and its focused technologies is becoming a topic earmarked for investors discussion.
“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.
Predictive modeling by The World Bank estimates that 2030, 62 percent of food fish will be provided through aquaculture, and from 2030 onward, driven by pressure to fill the gap, aquaculture will dominate supply in the industry, according to the report, Fish to 2030, Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Biggest Challenge
Umitron states that the biggest challenge facing the aquaculture sector is the optimization of feeding – a business factor that accounts for more than 50 percent of total production costs. The mistaken practice of overfeeding results in eutrophication and other marine environmental risks.
In response Umitron released “UmiGarden” – a technology that enable producers to optimize feeding by school behavior analysis. By monitoring fish behavior using underwater sensors and data analytics, UniGarden is designed to determine exactly when fish are hungry, eliminating unnecessary or untimely feeding.
This need for development of feed technologies in the aquaculture sector has recently come to the attention of other investors as well.
In early 2017 aquaculture investor, David Tze, announced the launch of the Tze Venture Search Fund for Aquaculture Technology – a new fund dedicated to backing and growing aquaculture feed innovations in the aquafeed ingredients sub-category.
And in April of this year, Dutch animal and aquaculture feed specialist Nutreco led an undisclosed Series B for India-based IoT aquaculture tech startup Eurvaka. Also participating in the round as a return investor is impact venture capital investor Omnivore Partners.
-Lynda Kiernan