The worldwide aquaculture funding fund Aqua-Spark, primarily based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, just lately launched investments in a pair of aquaculture know-how corporations.
Aqua-Spark’s first funding was a part of an €11 million (US$12 million) spherical in eniferBio, a biotechnology startup primarily based in Finland. Aqua Spark led A-Spherical and they’re joined by Tesi, Valio, Voima Ventures and Nordic Foodtech.
eniferBio mentioned the funding will assist the corporate increase its PEKILO mycoprotein powder. The corporate has developed a mycoplasmal protein that’s produced from by-products of meals and agricultural processes that include excessive ranges of carbohydrates, fat, and minerals, and, in response to the corporate, has a carbon footprint “50 occasions smaller than that of beef.”
The fungus by fermentation produces a dry powder that can be utilized in each pet meals and aqua feed. The method was initially created by foresters within the Nineteen Sixties to create extra sources of earnings and cost-effective animal feed protein from the pulp and paper trade, Enverbio mentioned.
The corporate mentioned its proprietary course of can produce protein from by-products of the agriculture, meals and forestry trade.
“We’re very excited to have our new buyers Aqua-Spark, Tesi and Valio becoming a member of us in our mission to feed the world with sustainable protein,” eniferBio CEO and co-founder Simo Ella he mentioned in a press launch. “Collectively, they put an unlimited quantity of latest, sector-specific data and networks at our disposal. We’re additionally happy to see our long-term backers Nordic Foodtech VC and Voima Ventures doubling down on their bets and exhibiting their continued help of our imaginative and prescient.”
The corporate added that the corporate already has partnerships with main aqua feed producers, resembling Skretting.
Aqua-Spark’s second funding, introduced on April 20, was in Vietnam-based shrimp know-how firm Tepbac as a part of its US$2.2 million (€2 million) Sequence A spherical, together with AgFunder and Son Tech Funding.
Beginning as a media firm protecting the Vietnamese shrimp trade, Tepbac has grown right into a Vietnamese shrimp know-how platform offering farmers with Web of Issues (IoT)-enabled units and a data-driven platform. The platform digitizes information collected by shrimp farmers, and one in every of its core merchandise, “Envisor,” supplies distant water cleansing and monitoring that tracks pH, oxygen, temperature and salinity.
“I began Tepbac to assist shrimp farmers, first in Vietnam, after which around the globe,” Tepbac founder Lam Nguyen mentioned in an announcement. “Through the use of higher instruments, rising manufacturing and bettering high quality, We will develop a extra sustainable international aquaculture trade. help these buyers It indicators the energy of our mannequin and an necessary shift within the trade.”
Tepbac at present supplies companies to 1,500 farms, from small to giant, together with shrimp processing vegetation and the federal government. Tepbac mentioned the funding from Aqua-Spark will assist it increase its know-how portfolio.
“We’re more than happy to welcome Tipac to our portfolio,” mentioned Lacey Smit, CEO of Aqua Spark. “The Tepbac platform caught our consideration as a result of it has superb potential to enhance market entry for small farmers and allow extra sustainable practices, all whereas rising and defending one of many largest shrimp markets on the earth.”
Picture courtesy of Tepbac