Hatch, the early-stage venture capital firm and aquaculture accelerator, appointed former Seafood Innovation Cluster director and founder, Tanja Hoel, as their new innovation manager.

“We want to focus on tying closer bonds with the aquaculture industry. Given the importance of the salmon industry, we believe Tanja has the right expertise and network to facilitate Hatch‘s global industry connections,” said Hatch’s managing partner and co-founder, Georg Baunach. Hoel was selected through a competitive application process due to her expertise and network in the salmon industry in Norway, as well as experience setting up new innovation programs with governments.

Over the past two years Hatch has grown from three co-founders to a team of eight full-time employees and offices on three continents. This hire comes at a time where accelerator has set a goal to expand its innovation services towards corporates and governments in the global aquaculture industry.

The first steps in this direction were already visible when Hatch recently published a comprehensive data set on shrimp farming technology, providing shrimp producers, entrepreneurs and investors insights on production efficiency, sustainability and innovation, which can be accessed under www.shrimpfarm.tech. The next step for Hatch is to grow further and strengthen its leadership position in aquaculture innovation. This will include building an advisory and consulting business on top of existing innovation offerings, where Hoel will play a major role.

“I am so excited to be a part of Hatch. The key to sustainable growth is innovation. Hatch has built an impressive portfolio of cutting-edge entrepreneurs and has set a high ambition to be a global player in innovation towards the global aquaculture industry,” said Hoel. Her key responsibilities will be to lead all corporate and government engagements including management of all existing corporates partners and onboard new clients for the innovation service offering.