The Yield Lab has announced the eight startups 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, Startup SG, 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.
