Singapore – The Yield Lab has announced the eight companies selected to participate in the Global Aquaculture Challenge 2021. This latest The Yield Lab global challenge, was issued as a call to action to draw out impactful aquaculture innovation from every corner of the globe, to become part of this subject matter lead, nonprofit accelerator program and competition. After a rigorous selection process involving 180 applications from all continents and sub-sectors of Aquaculture, the GAC 2021 cohort includes: Feedvax (Argentina), Genufeed (Israel), Jala (Indonesia), Salmokine (Chile), Seawater Solutions (UK), TeOra (Singapore), Wittaya Aqua (Canada), and Xylome (USA). These companies consist of innovations in health and disease management, water quality management, nutrition, farming technology and span the universe of species: tilapia, barramundi, trout, shrimp, halophytes and others.
The Yield Lab Asia Pacific in conjunction with industry sponsors, are providing access to Prizes in excess of $1.6M USD. The GAC lead Sponsor, the US Soybean Export Council (USSEC), has made this Challenge possible. Sponsors contributing to the $1.6M in prizes are: IBM, Aqua Bridge, Salmon Sustentable of Chile, Enterprise Singapore, StartupSG, the Global Seafood Alliance and the Animal AgTech Innovation Summit. With the involvement of an array of subject matter experts from the most prestigious Corporates, NGOs Private Companies, and Universities, The Yield Lab has orchestrated this Challenge in order to advance and scale sustainable aquaculture globally while actively addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
In order to sustainably meet the nutritional needs of 10 billion people by 2050, an increase in diverse innovation in the area of agrifood and aqua technologies is required. Fish and Shellfish convert feed more efficiently than land-based animals, aquaculture desperately needs technology and data-driven solutions to improve farming systems, animal health and their impact on the environment, while improving production and supply chain efficiency, and thus accelerate the availability of this important protein.
The Global Aquaculture Challenge (GAC) is the first of a kind, non-equity aquaculture accelerator program designed to have a global impact. The GAC Program is already underway, and will culminate at the Finale event on the 7th of October where all innovators pitch to a global audience of aquaculture experts and investors for cash and in-kind prizes.
The GAC employs a global approach to global issues. Asia is host to 90% of the global aquaculture industry on a volume basis. That leaves tremendous potential for aquaculture to take off in other geographies of the world, and for innovators from any geography on the planet to solve entrenched industry problems. The GAC uses a holistic approach to solve complex issues in the aquaculture industry, by inviting innovators from industry, academia, NGOs, producers, or policymakers to stimulate change. The Challenge pairs viable, sustainable, and high impact innovations with experienced subject matter experts during the entire six months of the accelerator program. The bespoke technical, business and go-to-market mentoring creates added value for the innovations as well as providing access to investment opportunities.
This Challenge is a collaboration between The Yield Lab Institute, a non-profit entity which drives sustainable agrifood and aqua tech innovation globally, and The Yield Lab Asia Pacific. The latter is part of the Yield Lab, a global federation of funds that provides early-stage investments in sustainable AgTech companies and has been a leader in the explosion of investment in the agriculture and food industries globally.
Click here to RSVP for the grand Finale on 7 October 2021, and receive notifications of events throughout The Yield Lab Global Aquaculture Challenge. There are also additional sponsorship opportunities remaining. If you are interested, please contact sophie@theyieldlab.com .
GAC 2021 Cohort Companies:
Feedvax is developing an innovative oral vaccine platform that simplifies production, eliminates fish stress and enhances sustainability. Feedvax revolutionizes animal production from the inside and hacks classic production processes to drive truly sustainable impact by removing antibiotics and injectable vaccines from the production chain. The first vaccine is against streptococcus in tilapia. Currently, infectious diseases cause loss of enough fish to feed 90 million people. To combat infectious diseases, the industry uses antibiotics that become persistent in the food chain and/or injectable vaccines that require impractical handling and additional costs.
Genufeed is developing a cost-effective insect-based fish feed production process that generates 100% fishmeal and fish oil-free aquafeed. This sustainable insect enrichment process utilizes locally produced insect larvae to be fed whole or chopped to the fish, reducing processing and costs while enhancing the local economy. Genufeed’s proprietary coating adds the exact combination of fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals that the fish need. The technology is modular, simple and designed to enhance aquaculture production, especially in developing markets.
Jala is developing an innovative integration of their shrimp data platforms to include farm management predictive analytics and actionable insights, field assistance, credit, insurance, and a trading platform all allowing improved farm economics and end-to-end traceability for producer communities and buyers.
Salmokine is developing an innovative platform based on the production of proteins from the fish immune system. These recombinant proteins are capable of modulating immunity and prompting the expression of antimicrobial peptides, providing protection against several pathogens without causing an exacerbated inflammatory reaction. This technology can be applied to complement vaccines or as feed supplements, reducing the use of antibiotics.
Seawater Solutions is developing an innovative integration of aquaculture and wetland agriculture to create a circular economy farming system producing a wide range of products from shrimp & finfish to salt-tolerant vegetables, sustainable fish feed, carbon credits, oils and minerals, and agro-forestry products. This technology enhances local economic viability and environmental remediation to the one third of the world’s lands affected by climate threats such as salinization and coastal erosion.
TeOra has developed proprietary technology platforms for natural, sustainable solutions to prevent disease and promote growth in shrimp. These solutions, designed using synthetic biology and encapsulation technology, address $300 billion in losses due to disease and overuse of pesticides and antibiotics. The technology platform can rapidly design low-cost growth enhancement and oral disease prevention solutions for aquaculture, by producing specific proprietary small proteins using precision fermentation of yeast.
Wittaya Aqua is developing innovative software platforms based on advanced modeling that will enable seamless collaboration throughout the global aquaculture supply chain. Once integrated, these tools will be able to predict farm and feed productivity, efficiency, and economics as well as key sustainability metrics such as waste outputs, carbon footprint, and FIFO ratios. The platforms will also be able to benchmark ingredient, feed, and animal performance, enabling continuous improvement to aquaculture operations, providing insights to multiple stakeholders, species and geographies.
Xylome is developing a platform that allows the production of a sustainable and price competitive salmon feed from by-products of ethanol plants using a special fermentation of metabolic engineered and heat treated nonconventional yeast. The lipid, protein and pigment profile of the Xylome feed is similar to commercial fish feed without the use of fish meal or fish oil. This sustainable development program and process is circular by design, thus allowing the reutilization of raw materials and by-products.
About The Yield Lab Asia Pacific Fund:
The Yield Lab Asia Pacific Fund based in Singapore is part of the global network of The Yield Lab Venture Capital Funds investing in innovative AgTech early stage companies. The Yield Lab to date has invested in 57 AgTech companies across Asia Pacific, North America, Latin American, Europe. We identify and accelerate impactful disruptive innovations across all aspects of the Agriculture industry with the mission to comprehensively address the ever-growing global food security issues with sustainable solutions. With our unique deep science and industry subject matter approach allowing our portfolio companies to complete commercialization of their innovations, and then through our vast The Yield Lab network, move them quickly around the globe, reaching their optimal addressable market, and highest valuation. Our goal is to sustainably outpace the nutritional and economic needs of the World through innovation that reverses the diminishing supply of natural resources and safely increases the availability of affordable nutritious food for all.
