The investment fund that focuses exclusively on sustainable aquaculture, Aqua-Spark, has announced its third major investment, along with co-investor IdeoSource.
eFishery is an award-winning tech company based in Bandung, Indonesia that offers a solution for one of the greatest environmental and operating cost challenges associated with fish farming – fish feed. eFishery offers an automatic, smart feeder that uses sensors to measure fish appetite and feed amounts.
Designed for both small and large-scale farmers, the system can sense appetite, automatically distribute feed, and give real-time reports of consumption via the Cloud. By tracking and optimising feedings, overfeeding – which is one of the biggest causes of environmental damage – is avoided. The same goes for underfeeding, which is a factor in underweight and unhealthy fish.
While eFishery is based in Indonesia, which has about 3.3 million fishponds and 2.7 million fish farms, when brought to scale it could have a massive impact across a global industry plagued by this challenge.
Aqua-Spark says that the eFishery feeder has the potential to set a new standard for aquaculture and make the industry more transparent, data-driven, and accountable. The collection of data will also be important for governments as they develop policies and guidelines for what is still an emerging industry.
“The biggest issue in aquaculture is feed,” said Aqua-Spark cofounders Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz. “On smaller farms, fish are fed manually and at random times without taking into account efficiency or growth curves. On large farms, feed is wasted, which leads to polluted water and economic losses. eFishery presents a crucial and simple solution to a complex problem. They are also a notable complement to our two other portfolio members – all with the potential to collaborate and, in tandem, transform this industry.”
Aqua-Spark launched in December 2013 with the mission of making fish farming sustainable through strategic investments in companies, technologies and practices that could transform this growing sector. The first two investments are: Calysta – a company that cultivates an efficient, methane-eating natural microbe that produces protein; and Chicoa Fish Farm – a farm offering a vertically integrated solution to kick-start Mozambique’s freshwater aquaculture industry.
