March 27, 2019

The Trendlines Group announced that its portfolio company BioFishency has raised $2.4 million through a round in which the primary investors are a private investor from China, Dutch global investment fund Aqua-Spark, and the Trendlines Group.

Founded in Israel in 2013 by aquaculture project managers and consultants, BioFishency is an aquaculture solutions startup working to raise sustainability and productivity for aquaculture producers.

With years of extensive knowledge, BioFishency develops and produces cost-effective, intuitive water treatment systems for land-based aquaculture operations. The company’s initial product, the SPB Single Pass Biofilters (SPB), acts as a plug-and-play complete system, and manages turn-key projects. It has demonstrated a 95 percent reduction in water usage for intensive tanks, a two-to-five-fold increase in yields for extensive ponds, twice the ability to remove ammonia for improved water quality, and significant increase in yield per water and land use.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing segment in animal protein production, and was named as one of the Ag Sectors to Watch in 2019 by Philippe de Lapérouse and Mark Zavodnyik of HighQuest Consulting.  Since 1960, global demand for seafood has increased 3.2 percent per year, outpacing the 1 percent growth in global population. Since 2010, aquaculture production has seen growth of 8 percent, reaching a market value of $13.3 billion, and by 2030 62 percent of all seafood is expected to be produced through aquaculture operations. However, in order to keep pace with such demand, new technologies are critical in advancing production methods.

“We are excited for BioFishency to join our portfolio,” said Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, co-founders of Aqua-Spark. “They’re our first investment in filtration technology — and attracted our attention because of their commitment to sustainability and accessibility. The sheer size of inland aquaculture globally means that aquaculture uses a lot of scarce resources. Biofishency’s technology enables the production of more fish per unit on land and in water while reducing the environmental impacts. This is imperative in sustaining the growth of aquaculture while reducing environmental effects.”

Amid this dynamic global market scenario, BioFishency’s aquaculture water treatment system is effectively operating across diverse markets including Israel, Congo, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and China, while there is strong interest from the shrimp production industries in Vietnam and Nigeria.

“Investment in technology ventures that support the growth of aquaculture production promises to be an exciting area over the next decade for investors who are willing to take the time to educate themselves about the industry, and about what type of innovations will be the most transformative,” said Philippe de Lapérouse, Director, HighQuest Consulting.

This investment will support the company in its expansion into high-demand markets, positioning the company for growth and the ability to raise additional capital, and to advance its R&D initiatives for the development of technologies that answer challenges faced by aquaculture producers.

“BioFishency’s recent investment is extremely important and enables us to develop in a number of ways,” said Igal Magen, co-CEO and co-founder of BioFishency. “We have begun to set up a Chinese operation, following our success in selling to the Chinese market. China makes up 60 percent of the world market for our products. Having a Chinese entity places the company in the heart of its main market, which presents the potential for raising additional capital and receiving government support in China in the future. The funds will also enable us to continue our R&D to provide additional aquaculture solutions for the market.”

Aqua-Spark

Founded as a pure-play global aquaculture investor, since 2015 Aqua-Spark has invested in 16 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), to have EUR 72.5 million (US$81.5 million) in assets under management.

In 2017, the fund began to diversify its investment focus to include tech, backing Proteon, a Polish agbiotech company developing naturally occurring bacteriophages, which target specific infections in fish and poultry without resulting in future resistance, as broad-spectrum antibiotics can; and Cryoocyte – a technology platform that helps improve the efficiency of selective fish breeding without employing genetic modification.

The following year, Aqua-Spark announced it had made an investment in Hatch 1.0, the first global accelerator created to back early-stage aquaculture startups, followed by an investment in CageEye, an agtech software and hardware developer working to improve efficiency in feeding practices for the salmon farming industry.

Together, Aqua-Spark’s portfolio works as an ecosystem, with companies agreeing to collaborate on optimal solutions along the entire supply chain, from farming operations, alternative feed ingredients, and disease battling technologies, to  consumer facing aquaculture products that can transform the industry through greater sustainability, accessibility, and health.

-Lynda Kiernan