Bright ideas
Start-ups with the potential to make an impact can benefit from a range of help and advice
By 2050, with an estimated nine billion humans on the planet, finding palatable, nutritious and sustainable protein sources will require innovative thinking. Fortunately, there are already organisations actively supporting new approaches and technology in the seafood sector. Two examples are the state-backed UK Seafood Innovation Fund (SIF) and Bright Tide, a social enterprise that helps bring innovative start-ups and early stage businesses together with corporate funders.
The fourth round of SIF launched in September, providing £3m of additional funding to support cutting-edge solutions that disrupt the status quo and help address challenges across the UK seafood sector.
Part of the £100m UK Seafood Fund, SIF launched in 2019 and has since supported almost 100 projects across the UK, spanning aquaculture, capture fisheries, and the seafood supply chain.
Taking the total funding made available under the scheme to £19m, the latest round is open to innovators across fisheries, aquaculture and the seafood supply chain.
Previous grant recipients include InsPro Ltd, which has trialled insects raised on local food waste as an ingredient for farmed salmon, and a project, led by Fishtek Marine, that has developed “scallop discos”, that is, lighted pots to catch wild shellfish.
SIF also backed the Rare Earth Global project to trial the use of hemp seed protein as a sustainable aquafeed ingredient for salmon.
The tide is high
Meanwhile, this summer Bright Tide launched its first Blue Economy Ocean Accelerator Programme for SME businesses. With more than 40 applicants, 12 successful businesses were selected to take part in the accelerator, which is the most specialist programme of its kind in the UK.
Bright Tide CEO Harry Wright explains: “We work with businesses to help them make climate change and biodiversity a strategic priority. We do this through (i) providing guidance and advisory support to organisations on their sustainability and social impact strategies (ii) offering exciting opportunities, like hackathons, for employees to take action on pressing climate and biodiversity issues, and (iii) facilitating training workshops for staff members on climate change and biodiversity risk and (iv) connecting businesses to investment-ready solutions in the climate/biodiversity markets.”
Wight, who has a background in corporate law, is passionate about conservation, biodiversity and tackling climate change. He set up Bright Tide with Jonathan Baillie, who was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist at the National Geographic Society and also Director of Conservation Programmes at the Zoological Society of London.
The organisation helps investors and corporates to identify how they can work with smaller enterprises for an environmental impact.
The businesses taking part over July and August include Biome Algae, which operates seaweed farms, producing and processing high-quality seaweed products and extracts. CEO and founder, Dr Angela Mead, commented: “Being a member of the 2022 cohort for the Bright Tide accelerator programme has been invaluable… we have progressed so much as a company in just a few months and are now set for a significant growth stage. Most importantly, we met a like-minded group of entrepreneurs within the blue economy space and look forward to continuing our journey as part of the Bright Tide community.”
Harry Wright said: “It’s been hugely exciting to work with the final 12 businesses on the programme and see first-hand the impact they’re each having, and the future growth potential in the blue economy.”
Later this month, Bright Tide’s next accelerator programme is set to be launched, this time focusing on the ability of marine ecosystems to capture and store large amounts of carbon.
Bright Tide’s Blue Economy Ocean Accelerator Programme is supported by founding sponsors The University of Plymouth and Investec Wealth & Investment, as well as supporting partners Hogan Lovells LLP, Blu Sky Chartered Accountants, Ocean Power Tech and The Crown Estate.
Find out more at Seafood Innovation Fund www.seafoodinnovation.fund/applynow/
Bright Tide www.bright-tide.co.uk
” We work with businesses to help them make climate change and biodiversity a strategic priority