Shortlist chosen for aqua entrepreneur prize

A shortlist of finalists has been unveiled for Norway’s Seafood Innovation Award, which has an enhanced prize following its merging with another entrepreneurial competition, the Gründerpresangen, in January.

Karoline Aarebrot, project manager at Norway’s Seafood Innovation Cluster, told Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, that among the many entries, the jury has now selected 11 companies to pitch their ideas to the jury at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum on March 5.

“The applicant pool included companies from Norway, Iceland, Sweden, France, and Italy. After the merger with the Gründerpresangen this year, we have an increased pool of applicants compared to previous years, and thus also got more relevant candidates to pitch,” she said.

The shortlist

The 11 selected for the pitch competition are as follows:

AquaPredict uses blood samples from salmon to profile up to 24 biomarkers per run which are instantly uploaded and evaluated by artificial intelligence that returns accurate predictions of fish population health as operational intelligence. Its first service to launch was a smoltification test to assess saltwater viability in fish, also predicting the optimal timing of transfer to seawater.

BiOceanOr also uses AI and has developed an underwater weather station that allows users to monitor, anticipate and control water quality problems in any aquaculture or environmental context. The company says its technology helps farmers understand the dynamics between biology and the marine environment, and provides predictions for dissolved oxygen, temperature, and harmful algal blooms.

The start-up, which raised €2 million in a funding round last July, is based in Nice, France and has a presence in Bergen, Valparaiso in Chile, and Singapore.

CatchWise uses data to direct its wishing industry customers to where the fish are, while AquaFind offers a fully digital marketplace designed to connect the aquaculture industry seamlessly.

Manolin, which won a Promising Newcomer prize at the UK aquaculture Awards in 2019, provides a solution to make data-driven decisions to minimise issues, maximise output, and increase profits.

BlueLice says its system attracts and captures sea lice before they reach the salmon by using only light as an attractant.

MariHealth Solutions utilises a proteomic approach to proactively and effectively assess the health and metabolism of animals.

“Through our technological approach and growing database, we will be able to identify biomarkers of stress and metabolism. We are also developing diagnostics and therapeutics for the identification and treatment of infectious diseases in farmed fish,” the company states on its website.

Seaqure labs. is an aquatech startup utilising mycoproteins as the solution for current unsustainable methods within aquaculture. By utilising fungi, the company creates a fully circular feed product using industrial biowaste.

Pure Lobster is a Norwegian-owned company that works with development, research and technology for breeding and farming of freshwater lobsters, while Solution Seeker provides Managed-AI-as-a-Service with technology that reads data from thousands of sensors in real-time.

Ittinsect produces sustainable, high performance aquaculture feed produced through biotech treatment of novel raw ingredients including insects, micro algae, and agricultural byproducts.