\"Industry Heavyweights\" Help Raise €4 Million for Aquaculture Start-ups

Hatch, the world’s first accelerator for sustainable\r\naquaculture startups, is half way through raising its first €8 million fund.

The fund is entirely dedicated to high-potential aquaculture\r\ntechnology startups and is slated to close in November 2019. So far, according\r\nto Hatch, the funds have been\r\nraised by a combination of "industry heavyweights, as well as experienced\r\nentrepreneurs".

Einar Wathne has joined Hatch's advisory board

The news comes as the accelerator has put together a senior\r\nfund advisory board before kicking off its third accelerator cohort at the Natural\r\nEnergy Lab Hawaii in Kona, Big Island, on 26 August. The advisors were selected\r\nbased on their experience in venture capital, aquaculture and entrepreneurial\r\nability.

"We are combining some big names in aquaculture and\r\nventure capital in our board of advisors, all of them successful entrepreneurs\r\nand investors themselves. Our fund advisory board has been instrumental in\r\nhelping us raise the fund so far and most of our advisors are also invested\r\nthemselves“, says Carsten Krome, managing partner at Hatch.

Brian Wynn brings extensive shrimp production experience to\r\nthe board

The board for the first-ever aquaculture technology venture\r\nfund consists of:

Brian Wynn - the LA-based founder and former CEO of Rubicon\r\nResources, a vertically integrated sustainable shrimp farming business that he\r\nbootstrapped to $230 million in sales and sold to Highliner for $107 million in\r\n2017. "Brian brings an excellent skill set and network of supply chain and\r\nwarm-water farming (shrimp) to the table," say Hatch.

Einar Wathne - the former CEO of EWOS, who was instrumental\r\nin its sale to Cargill for $1.5 billion in 2015. He since has led what became\r\nCargill Aqua Nutrition as president and has stepped down in January 2019. He is\r\nnow the COB of the Seafood Innovation Cluster, an organisation formed by the\r\nmajor salmon farmers and suppliers in Norway to promote industry. "Einar\r\ncomes with an important skill set in cold-water fish farming and fish farming\r\nsupply (feed, health products etc) as well as a wealth in leadership and\r\nmanagement experience," Hatch explain.

Eric Archambeau

Eric Archambeau - a founding partner of Astanor Ventures, he\r\nis a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist now focusing\r\non technology-enabled sustainable agriculture and food investments. Notable\r\ninvestments include Infarm - an indoor farming Berlin based company specialised\r\non micro-herbs and Ynsect, a large-scale insect production company for the pet\r\nfood and aquaculture markets. Since 2015, he has been serving as global\r\nchairman of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

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Kai Sato - founder of Kaizen Reserve, which serves as an\r\ninvestment advisor to family offices and corporations, helping align their\r\nexisting assets with synergistic startups. He is also the founding partner of\r\nVintage Capital Investments, which focuses on technology and media investments\r\nin sports. Before his transition to venture capital, Kai cofounded, FieldLevel,\r\nthe social network dedicated to sports recruiting and participated as an entrepreneur\r\nin the inaugural Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator. He works closely with\r\naccelerators across multiple industries and is also Hatch's\r\nentrepreneur-In-residence, actively mentoring its cohort companies.

Source : The Fish Site