Olaisen Blue, which is both an aquaculture investor and accelerator, and BioFeyn, focused on the improvement of salmon feed by advancements from human biomedicine, co-hosted an industry innovation event at Lovund, Norway. The island is home to NovaSea, a company owned by the Olaisen family, which in 2021 established Olaisen Blue to foster startup investment. BioFeyn is one of their initial investments.
The event included site visits to salmon farms and feed facilities, cutting-edge technology demonstrations, lectures, and roundtables on the future of sustainability, feed and nutrition, corporate partnerships, and opportunities in the Arctic.
“Too many ocean startups overlook direct interactions with the ocean and people who work with the sea when developing new solutions. We want to enable entrepreneurs access to the local industry, so they can develop applied solutions with real impact,” said Stine Svanevik, CEO of Olaisen Blue.
Innovators like BioFeyn are applying advanced technologies to enhance feed efficiency with the ultimate aim of reducing resource use, waste, carbon emissions, and cost.
“I’ve worked in over 50 countries to improve the health of animals, people, and the environment. The feed sourcing challenges of the salmon industry are similar to those of other farmed species – and the only real way to fix them is to find more feed or increase efficient use. The second option is the obvious choice for our world today and is why I’m so excited to be a part of the BioFeyn team,” said William Karesh, veterinarian, One Health founder, and BioFeyn investor.
Other innovators represented at the event included Probotic, a Norwegian technology company automating net maintenance with subsea drones, and Undersee, a Portuguese water quality monitoring company deploying sensor-based forecasting. Each startup has made significant advances since its participation in the Olaisen Blue accelerator in spring 2022. BioFeyn revealed successful results in live fish, Probotic announced a new patent, and Undersee secured key Norwegian partnerships.
Participants from around the world brought a diversity of expertise and perspectives. Salmon farm team members representing NovaSea, Kvarøy, and Helgeland Smolt participated in the talk as well as experts from feed and ingredient suppliers companies, such as Skretting, STIM/PolarFeed, and Aker BioMarine. Furthermore, Olaisen Blue, Hatch Blue, Katapult Ocean, Rabobank, Okeanos Capital, DNB, Faber Ventures, Investinor, and CoFounder intervened in the talk as investors and Innovation Norway, Kupa, Kystinkubatoren, LetSea as regional partners.
