Earthshot Ventures, a US venture capital fund with a passion for supporting entrepreneurs working to solve climate’s toughest challenges, recently invested in aquaculture company Aquabyte. The investment was driven by the growing importance of the aquaculture sector in providing a sustainable future for food production.
“As the global population continues to grow, we need to develop more low emission sources of protein in order to thrive as a species. Aquaculture is one piece of that puzzle,” Matt Logan, Principal of Earthshot Ventures, said, citing how it “generates ~eight times fewer GHG per gram of beef than protein.”
“While aquaculture may not be the first sector people think of when it comes to climate solutions, we believe that the entire economy is going to be rewired around lower carbon resources, and aquaculture is an important part of that story,” Logan added.
Climate-first investments
Earthshot Ventures, which operates a $60 million fund, saw potential in Aquabyte over its “comprehensive” Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programme, reflecting the venture capital fund’s “climate-first approach to investing.”
Following the investment, Earthshot Ventures will work with the aquaculture company on its positive impact on emissions, such as the reduction, associated with overfeeding and fish mortality from sea lice, and an estimation of emissions around displacing higher emission protein sources.
Booming industry
Logan expressed how the investment had been partly driven by the commercial potential in Aquabyte, stating how the aquaculture industry is a $260 billion market globally that is in the early stages of technological adoption. “While Aquabyte is currently focused on salmon in Norway, and that market alone is large enough to support a profitable public company, market expansion into other finfish species around the world provides an opportunity to build a massive, enduring business,” he stated.
With Bryton Shang, Aquabyte’s CEO, being an engineer by training Eartshot Ventures was clear that it was “extremely impressed” with the company “throughout the due dillegence process.”
Shang “has been critical in developing the company’s product to where it is today, and he’s simultaneously very customer centric and spends the majority of his time in Norway to be close to customers. It’s rare to see CEOs who are able to execute on such a high level both technically and commercially,” Logan said, discussing Aquabyte’s CEO.
