Hatch Raises The Stakes for New Aquaculture Programme

Aquaculture investor Hatch has increased the cash portion of its offer to start-ups taking part in its accelerator programme.

Hatch is recruiting for its fourth programme, which offers $75,000 cash investment and $55,000 in-kind value to each participating company.

The investor has previously offered €50,000 cash ($54,000) per company plus €50,000 of in-kind support in return for a share of the firm’s equity. In-kind support includes mentoring from a variety of aquaculture industry experts.

Investment fund

Hatch also has an $8.4 million investment fund which offers follow-on investment for top performers in its programmes.

The “2020 Global Cohort 4.0” is limited to 10 companies who will take part in a 15-week programme at three locations - Hawaii, Bergen in Norway, and Singapore – where Hatch has bases.

Hatch’s investment philosophy assumes that the aquaculture industry needs to increase its efficiency and make its way of operation more sustainable through innovative technology.

Improving technology

Managing partner and co-founder Georg Baunach said: “We believe that currently the most important tasks are to improve the technological level of farming and to find alternatives to traditional feed ingredients – and thereby increase the sustainability of the sector.”

Within the last year, the Hatch portfolio has received more than $10m in external investment and licensing deals worth more than $40m. The investment focus areas of Hatch are nutrition, health, biotech, production methods, and technology.

Hatch was awarded the prize for international impact at last year’s Aquaculture Awards held in Edinburgh, and one of its portfolio companies, fish farm software developer Manolin, shared the award for most promising new entrant to the industry.

Source: Fish Farming Expert