Final Report: The Blue Economy Challenge and Aquacelerator

BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION WITH GLOBAL REINFORCEMENT

BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE & AQUACELERATOR

Final Report PAG E 0 2 - B AC KG R O U N D ( External) PAG E 13 - N E T WO R K- C E N T R E D I N N OVAT I O N ( Internal) PAG E 2 5 - R EC O M M E N DAT I O N S ( Internal)

“I am inspired by the energy and the diversity of leaders from across government and business and the science world and academia joining in the efforts to realise the challenges and opportunities of the Blue Economy.”

THE HONORABLE JULIE BISHOP MP, AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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BACKGROUND

Why focus on aquaculture?

G

58% of the fish we eat, much aquaculture (particularly predatory fish and prawn) remains environmentally unsustainable. Many aquaculture farms are also economically unsustainable. Ninety percent of aquaculture occurs in the developing world where lack of access to current technologies and capital, coupled with weak regulation, are barriers to change. Moreover, while aquaculture is often a direct response to depleted fisheries, the aquaculture industry relies heavily on wildcaught fish to feed captive fish, which could lead to overfishing and undermine human and environmental sustainability in the long-term.

lobal demand for protein is anticipated to skyrocket in the coming decades, and aquaculture has the potential to meet a significant proportion of that need.

While fisheries globally are nearing the point of collapse, large populations in developing countries are gaining wealth and adopting middle-class diets higher in protein. Aquaculture is projected to at least double in outputs by 2050. Aquaculture food supply per capita and total production value have grown at an annual rate of almost 9% for decades, and although this rate is around 6-6.5% today, farmed seafood has overtaken production from capture fisheries. Fish farming enables seafood consumption (and access to protein) to continue to increase even as marine fisheries production has flat-lined.

Aquaculture can be the protein source of the future, yet as the industry currently stands, it is in need of innovations to improve efficiency, sustainability, and long-term viability.

Accordingly, we invited innovators worldwide to

While the current aquaculture industry is a vital producer for the global fish market, supplying

solve three of its major challenges.

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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

What is the Blue Economy Challenge?

Led by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) innovationXchange in partnership with SecondMuse, the Blue Economy Challenge (BEC) was an effort to promote aquaculture solutions in support of development outcomes in economies across the Indian Ocean Region. The three challenge areas were as follows: C H A L L E N G E 1 : Rethinking Feed for Aquaculture: Create highly

nutritional aquaculture feed replacements that match or improve on the cost and nutritional performance of existing feedstock while reducing the burden on the natural environment.

C H A L L E N G E 2 : New Ocean Products: Create new ocean

products that vastly expand the diversity, sustainability, and quality of aquaculture products to meet growing food security needs while decreasing aquaculture’s environmental footprint.

C H A L L E N G E 3 : Sustainable Design: Create highly nutritional

aquaculture feed replacements that match or improve on the cost and nutritional performance of existing feedstock while reducing the burden on the natural environment.

Why network-centred innovation? organisational and industry-wide challenges to the masses, we can unleash the creative potential to make a lasting positive impact, as people contribute their talents to issues they care deeply about.

We believe that global systemic problems are, by definition, too big and complex to be addressed by any one person or entity. As a result, it becomes necessary to work together to solve them. It is not always easy or natural for multiple diverse organizations to work together on long-term problems. But we do believe that there are certain conditions that make it easier to collaborate and we help cultivate that. This includes having people work together in an inspiring environment, helping organizations truly understand and believe in each other’s value, and working concretely to help advance the success of others.

The result is faster, better, and cheaper solutions that will help us meet the growing demand for protein, and end hunger, improve economic outcomes, and sustain our oceans for future generations.

Rather than focusing on just a small part of a larger problem, we look to systemic solutions: ways to fix not only one minor obstacle, but disrupt the global infrastructure. Big problems call for big solutions.

At a programmatic level, this looks like the development of a network of individuals and organizations tailored to the systemic problem that we are trying to solve. It begins with the development of a challenge, demanding a new approach to an old problem. By thoughtfully opening up

The Blue Economy Challenge top 20 finalists included innovations from the South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Bali’s Symbiopro; and University of the Philippines at Los Baños.

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BACKGROUND

What were the 220 + submissions we received?

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

RETHINKING FEED

NEW OCEAN

S U S TA I N A B L E

F O R A Q U A C U LT U R E

PRODUCTS

DESIGN

30%

19.5%

50.5%

Submissions included 157 (70%) early stage companies and 65 (30%) late stage companies representing the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, UK, US, Vietnam.

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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

Who were the selected Fellows?

AGRIPROTEIN TECHNOLOGIES

MICROSYNBIOTIX LT D .

Industrial-scale insect meal protein replacement of fishmeal in fish feed

Algal oral vaccines for disease management

BRIDGING I N T E R N AT I O N A L COMMUNITIES

O DYS S E Y SENSORS A low-cost solar-powered salinity sensor

Oasis Aquaponic Food Production System

C L I M AT E F O U N D AT I O N

T H E R EC YC L E R LT D .

Open water Marine Permaculture Arrays

Larvae from biowaste for aquaculture feed

E N E R G A I A C O . LT D .

SE APOWER

Sustainable production of spirulina

Improved seaweed farming technology for women

INDIAN OCEAN T R E PA N G

WORLDFISH AND CSIRO

Sea cucumber farming for local communities

Turning crop wastes into sustainable aquaculture feeds

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BACKGROUND

The Fellows and the Sustainable Development Goals The Blue Economy Challenge initially set out to tackle two key Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal 14, Life Below Water. Through the work of the selected innovators, we collectively address 11 of 17 SDGs.

EnerGaia, MicroSynbiotiX, Odyssey Sensors, The Climate Foundation, World Fish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging International Communities, The Recycler, AgriProtein, SeaPower

EnerGaia, MicroSynbiotiX, Odyssey Sensors, The Climate Foundation, World Fish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging International Communities, The Recycler, AgriProtein, SeaPower

EnerGaia, Odyssey Sensors, World Fish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging International Communities, The Recycler, AgriProtein, SeaPower

EnerGaia, MicroSynbiotiX, Odyssey Sensors, World Fish/CSIRO, Bridging International Communities

EnerGaia, Bridging International Communities

EnerGaia, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging International Communities, AgriProtein, SeaPower

The Recycler, AgriProtein

World Fish/CSIRO, The Recycler, AgriProtein

The Climate Foundation, AgriProtein, SeaPower

The Recycler, AgriProtein

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The Recycler, AgriProtein

BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

What were highlights from their acceleration?

AgriProtein • With BEC funds, AgriProtein is ramping up larvae growth and training employees. With new diversity initiatives, they have increased their female workforce by 10% in 1 month.

• In February, Wilco and Olaf announced a significant partnership with Christof Industries, allocating $10M USD to rollout 100 fly farms by 2024, and 200 by 2027.

• AgriProtein was also selected for the prestigious 2017 Global Cleantech 100 list by the Cleantech Group as one of the most promising ideas impacting the future.

Bridging International Communities • The team secured warehouse space in Michigan to begin manufacturing units for pilot project deployment, focusing on improving the Oasis system and exploring partnerships around the Indian Ocean Region for their pilot deployment.

• The team is also exploring partnerships in Tanzania and India for distribution. This included a trip to Uganda to explore applicability of aquaponic solutions with rural communities, followed by visits in Tanzania where Michelle is looking to deploy pilots.

The Climate Foundation • Brian and Rebecca have been to Australia, New Zealand, Oman, Zanzibar, and Indonesia, with visits with DFAT, CSIRO’s Mat Vanderklift, Australian public radio, Radio New Zealand, a sustainability conference, and WWF’s National Council Convention.

• The Climate Foundation was featured in Paul Hawken’s Drawdown​book​.

• The team’s seven Climate Fellows are building subsystems for overturning circulation, and initializing field testing BEC funded pilot project deployment in the Indian Ocean.

World Fish/CSIRO • After working with farmers to make feeds using local ingredients, World Fish is ready for their experiment in Khulna, Bangladesh, and the local team has been able to finalize preparation for trials, which are also moving forward in Tanzania.

• Additionally, the shrimp cages are ready and the feeding stations complete. World Fish is now filling the ponds, after which the cages will be installed and the water will be treated.

Indian Ocean Trepang • After a trip to Thailand with Donna Kwan of UNEP and meetings with technical advisors, the local community, and corporate partners, IOT is preparing for expansion in Thailand.

• Thibault and Olivier celebrated a $2.75M USD investment by AquaSpark.

• IOT is working with The Recycler to bring community sea cucumber farming to Tanzania. IOT is also working with the Malagasy government and the World Bank on a coastal village partnership program to expand to six new villages and reach 204 families by 2019.

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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

MicroSynbiotiX • MicroSynbiotiX met with SOS Ventures and council member Carsten Krome from Alimentos Ventures to align term sheets, in addition to meeting with Simon Mamouney, DFAT’s First Security and Deputy Head of Mission in Ireland.

• In addition to the Aquacelerator, MicroSynbiotiX won two more big challenges: California Life Sciences Institute’s FAST Advisory Program and Nutreco’s Feed Tech Challenge.

• The team secured an R&D space at a lab in San Diego, while successfully expressing insulin in microalgae. They’ve begun hiring, including a senior scientific advisor.

The Recycler • Jon and Matt have led a proposal for a Tanzania Aquaculture Incubator in partnership with the Tanzanian government.

• Along with Dr. Flower Msuya of SeaPoWer, Matt and Jon’s virtual reality video premiered at the UN’s World Oceans Day. • The black soldier fly breeding facility and hatchery have been built and tilapia farms are being prepared; it’s only a matter of time before more Tanzanians supplement their diet with Indian Ocean Aquaculture tilapia fed on The Recycler’s black fly larvae fish feed.

SeaPower • Flower presented at WWF’s Fuller Fund Symposium, and studied economic opportunities for Zanzibari women seaweed farmers while in South Africa.

• After receiving their award funding from DFAT, SeaPoWer began working with these women to evaluate whether tubular nets pass scientific and cultural tests.

• SeaPoWer deployed the first set of tubular nets on the island and was awarded a SwedBio grant to expand their deployment and training at a new site.

• Take a seat on a boat through the immersive video here, runner up in the 2017 Women in Seafood Competition. The video premiered at UN World Oceans Day.

EnerGaia • Saumil has met with Solidaridad’s Country Manager, farmer cohorts in Bangladesh, the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, DFAT’s mission in Dhaka, and potential commercial partners, in addition to hiring a team of interns from around the world.

• EnerGaia won USAID and Winrock’s Tech4Farmers Innovation Challenge.

• EnerGaia officially started operations in India and hope to have 200 bioreactors up and running by the end of the summer, and 1000 by the end of the year.

Odyssey Sensor • With Definium Tech, Odyssey Sensors designed a new HealthyShrimp salinity sensor. By 2018, they aim to have 10,000 in use by shrimp farmers in the Indian Ocean Region.

• With support from one of the Aquacelerator’s champions, Solidaridad, Wayne is collaborating with five Bangladeshi shrimp farmers who are community leaders.

• Wayne is also working with the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation and EnerGaia on integrating sensors into their operations.

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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

What did we learn?

Throughout the Blue Economy Challenge, a tremendous amount of insight was gathered.

As we defined the challenges to our oceans, and more specifically to the sustainable growth of aquaculture, we learned about a myriad of challenges the industry faces. As we worked with the industry to select Fellows from over 220 applications, we were inspired by the diversity of solutions being developed. And as we supported our Fellows, we learned about specific resources that aquaculture entrepreneurs need to succeed. Here are a few highlights we wanted to share.

TA N Z A N I A - Naturally, the confluence of Fellows already working in Tanzania, as well as those interested in expanding to the country, provided the Aquacelerator team with the opportunity to focus on localized acceleration support. The Fellows helped SecondMuse build a network of 70+ regional stakeholders, 40 of whom participated in a Big Think workshop in Dar es Salaam around the future of Aquaculture in the region. Much as the global BEC network has supported Fellows to find investors, scale their businesses, and expand to new markets, the Tanzanian stakeholders have already become the local partners, funders, and champions for Fellows in the region. What happened in Tanzania is also a fantastic example of the power of the cohort. Fellows outside Tanzania were interested in expanding there, first and foremost because they had fellow BEC winners on the ground who could help them navigate the complexities of entering a new market.

The cluster attracted innovation within the BEC cohort and energized regional stakeholders to refocus on aquaculture, a small sector with big potential. Going forward, the BEC is hopeful that the momentum continues and that aquaculture catalyzes positive social, economic, and environmental change in Tanzania.

F I N A N C I A L I N N O VAT I O N - While technological innovations are easy to visualize, our Fellows benefitted from innovative financial tools that help allocate resources across value chains and link production to markets that can facilitate the growth of industries and provide economic opportunities to communities in that supply chain.

EnerGaia in particular has been able to help bridge the gap from production to markets with the involvement of innovative financial partners such as the Antenna Foundation who have provided financial solutions to help

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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENG E & AQUACELER ATOR

scale spirulina production in India. As EnerGaia scales across Southeast Asia, they will continue to work with BEC council and mentors such as MicroSave, Opportunity International, BRAC, and the Grameen Foundation to look at value chain finance solutions that bring resources to rural communities to help them grow spirulina.

other countries that support dugong habitats. The project is being designed in collaboration with a community in Trang, Thailand, a private sector company and a foundation who all bring necessary expertise, capacity, and resources to get this project off the ground.

C L U S T E R S / S U S TA I N A B L E F I S H F E E D - The BEC insight process helped illuminate innovations in feed as a critical opportunity for the sector.

“Rethinking Feed for Aquaculture” became one of the three challenge areas and AgriProtein, The Recycler, and WorldFish/CSIRO were all selected for their innovations in the space. Ridley, represented by key council member and evaluator Sunil Kadri, provided industry insight to legitimize and guide these Fellows. This trio, supported by Kadri and the broader network, demonstrated what a focused challenge around an industry vertical like feed would look like. Since feed accounts for 70-80% of costs for aquaculture companies and one-third of all wild-caught fish are used for feed, the stakeholders have to work together. AgriProtein, while raising millions of dollars to continue building factories to produce insect-based feed, gracefully acted as a role model for The Recycler, an early stage company building their own insect-based feed operation in Tanzania. WorldFish and CSIRO came together to collaborate on their plant-based feed product, Novacq. The more similarities Fellows within a cohort share, the more they are able to complement each other’s acceleration. Building upon the Aquacelerator, future SecondMuse accelerators will recreate these clusters by forming working groups for Fellows with similar innovations or markets. One further step is to run more focused challenges.

E M P O W E R M E N T - The Blue Economy Challenge is exceptionally proud of our Fellows’ commitment to supporting female leaders and the women in their communities. While gender was not a selection criteria, two of our Fellows are all-women teams, and five of our 10 focus on empowering women in their communities.

Bridging International Communities and SeaPoWer are exceptional examples of committed and insightful women from Tanzania, Kenya, the United States, and El Salvador who have developed technologies and programs to help women in rural and coastal communities generate income and grow food for their families. AgriProtein, EnerGaia, and Indian Ocean Trepang also provide significant opportunities to women in South Africa, Thailand, and Madagascar respectively. As all five of these companies expand to new countries, they bring a commitment to provide women with economic opportunities that elevate their place in society and stimulate their pride.

WOMEN LEADERS AND WOMEN’S

C R O S S S E C T O R C O L L A B O R AT I O N S SecondMuse fundamentally believes in the power of diverse networks to help solve complicated challenges.

The Blue Economy Challenge’s networks were diverse in many ways, resulting in a number of interesting collaborations. One of the most promising opportunities emerged by aligning aquaculture solutions with conservation initiatives. By helping coastal communities find income generation opportunities to replace their reliance on cutting seagrass, UNEP’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals and the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund are able to help preserve dugong habitats and protect this vulnerable species. To do this, council member Donna Kwan and mentor Maya Bankova are working with Saumil Shah of EnerGaia and Thibault Giulioli of Indian Ocean Trepang to bring spirulina and sea cucumber farms to coastal communities in Thailand, and potentially many

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Who was in the network?

The Blue Economy network is a cross sector representation from both development and aquaculture industries that ensured individuals or organizations with the right expertise or resources were available to support Fellows.

The network of 800+ individuals included thematic and regional clusters of common implementation, and common challenges or opportunities. This attracted enthusiastic and engaged council members, who were looking for mutually beneficial opportunities to work with Fellows and exercise their altruistic good will, resulting in prompt follow-up and continued advice and capacity.

Below is an overview of the network, noting some of the key players and their contributions to the insight and acceleration phases.

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“Apart from the resources provided by BEC, we also received some amazing contacts in our industry and useful tools for tracking our social impact.”

MATTHEW HADEN, THE RECYCLER

Tanzania, home of The Recycler, supports a nascent but emerging aquaculture industry, with homegrown innovators supporting communities transitioning from fishing and foraging to aquaculture activities. In Making Waves: Reengineering Aquaculture in Tanzania, produced by DFAT iXc and SecondMuse, we spoke with three of the most promising solutions being developed to support the growth of Tanzania’s aquaculture industry. The film has been screened at the UN World Oceans Festival, the Australian Government’s “Catalysing Innovation in Australia’s International Development Agenda”, and at USAID’s Global Innovation Week 2017.

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How did the network engage?

Insight B I G T H I N K - The Big Think is an event that convenes experts who will define the parameters of the challenge space. It is designed to be a problemsolving catalyst, connecting existing dots in new ways to unlock innovative answers. Specifically, we used the Big Think to help prioritize among the most critical problems for ocean conservation, to build the tribe around a set of Grand Challenges for conservation of the oceans, to create a set of commitments to help us reimagine ocean conservation, and to galvanize support for a global fund for a set of Grand Challenges to realise these goals. We hosted Big Thinks prior to the launch of the Challenge as well as during the acceleration phase, including an event in Tanzania in April 2017.

And we benefited greatly from the collective genius of the extraordinary individuals we brought together.

L A N D S C A P I N G M A P - Simultaneous to understanding leverage points for disruptive change in the oceans, we developed a method of mapping and a systemic model for comprehending the field of ocean conservation via technology. It involves collaborative sense-making through desk research and interviews. This work is best presented in slide format. Please click here for a tour of the model.

The tour guides viewers through the systemic components that need to be considered when approaching conservation technology from a holistic perspective. (Due to the large size of the map, it can only be viewed in full online or projected on a wall.

Click here to explore the full map online.)

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Source To promote the Blue Economy Challenge, we utilized digital channels to amplify our messaging and reach relevant audiences, particularly innovators in the Indian Ocean region. As such, using the hashtag #BlueRevolution in more than 1,180+ posts, SecondMuse, DFAT iXc, and influencers including Yuvan Beejadhur, Ocean Economy Specialist at the World Bank; Kristen Honey, Policy Advisor at White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Gilly Llewellyn, Conservation Director at World Wildlife Fund Australia; and Shah Selbe, Conservation Technologist and Explorer with the National Geographic Society helped us reach more than 12 million citizens, supporters, and potential innovators through social media. Outreach ultimately led to more than 64 thousand visits to the Blue Economy Challenge website.

Over the course of the call for submissions, we met a host of inspiring people whose work connects them to the ocean. We snorkeled in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef with marine biologist Maya Knowles, who told us about the threat of coral bleaching. We also talked to chefs at iconic seafood restaurants Nautilus and Thala, who

developed special menus for World Oceans Day. We advanced our storytelling and promoted the challenge through 16 blog posts from the announcement of the challenge to the close of the call for submissions, leveraging our network of influencers, including those featured in the blog posts. Blog posts featured Carter Roberts, President and CEO of the WWF and Lisa Rauter, former First Assistant Secretary at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s InnovationXchange, among many others.

As we continued to stress the importance of the challenge, on World Oceans Day 2016, we reported from Monterey Bay, California, where we harvested and cooked abalone from a sustainable sea farm, taking it literally from ocean to table. In addition, we spoke with innovators from across the U.S. at the 2016 Ocean Sciences meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ultimately, this led to more than 200 submissions to the Blue Economy Challenge, from which we identified 10 Fellows to take part in the Aquacelerator, with the help of 48 judges over the course of 2 rounds of judging.

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Acceleration The Aquacelerator is designed to support the development and deployment of the winning innovations from the BEC by providing business mentoring and by building a committed network of leaders from across the sector.

F U N D I N G : Each of the Fellows was awarded funds to help bring their innovation to scale in the Indian Ocean Region, thereby contributing to a Blue Economy.

K I C K O F F : The Aquacelerator commenced with a Kickoff held in Perth from 5-9 December, bringing together the 10 inspiring BEC Fellows and council members with experts from across the aquaculture and development sectors for the first time. The facilitated multi-day event connected Fellows with investment partners, market leaders, and technical experts as well as philanthropic, NGO, and public sector actors committed to accelerating the adoption and scale of aquaculture innovations. Sessions revolved around monitoring and evaluation, storytelling, and engaging with council members; and culminated with impact rotations, a chance for direct, small group feedback and commitments from the council members for each Fellow.

S T O R Y T E L L I N G S U P P O R T : At the Kickoff, we introduced the Aquacelerator Fellows to the power of storytelling with a storytelling workshop and toolkit for their use. In addition, throughout the Accelerator, we provided bespoke support to numerous Fellows. This included creating a website for Indian Ocean Trepang, creating digital strategies for MicroSynbiotiX and AgriProtein, getting AgriProtein on Twitter around their participation in the World AgriTech Summit, and sharing updates from all of the Fellows on the Aquacelerator blog. We capped off this support by promoting all of the Fellows as part of World Oceans Day 2017.

M O N T H LY C O N T E N T T H E M E S : Each month we focused on a topic related to building and growing Fellow businesses. This included providing resources as a starting point and guides for conversations around particular topics such as building business, research and development, customer immersion, market integration, etc.

1 - O N - 1 C U S T O M I S E D S U P P O R T : The Program Guide facilitated customised support based on each individual Fellow’s needs, both virtually and in person. Examples included but were not limited to: preparation for, introduction to and negotiating with investors, channel distributors and clients; pilot design support; customer immersion experiences and more.

M O N T H LY G R O U P C H E C K - I N S : A valuable aspect of this accelerator was the shared learnings across the cohort of Fellows. As such, Fellows and program staff (including Program Guides) came together virtually on a monthly basis to share updates and challenges and learn from each other.

Following each of these sessions, the program team connected to identify what resources the program has available to serve Fellows.

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“There has been and continues to be a camaraderie among the cohort members... we know each other personally, we know each other’s businesses, we share similar challenges, frustrations, and successes.

All this boils down to knowing that in my role as CEO of Odyssey Sensors, I am not alone. That is an enormous value to my company and me.”

WAYNE TURNER, ODYSSEY SENSORS

“One learns much from talking and listening to others during our online meetings. Information shared among cohort members is very valuable as an economic development tool for our communities and personal development.”

FLOWER MSUYA, INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCES

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Acceleration Capacity Through the Aquacelerator, we provided the Fellows with numerous support in the areas of business and partnership development, communications, investment, organizational development, and localization. The following are examples of this of support. With a mix of early stage and late stage companies within the accelerator, different Fellows required different support and, thus, we customized our support to each Fellow’s individual needs.

• O R G A N I Z AT I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T As our Fellows prepared for growth, we worked with the Fellows and management teams to help develop the internal capacity of the organization. Recognizing Fellows were at various stages of development, our support varied from internal management systems to helping build teams.

• B U S I N E S S / PA R T N E R S H I P D E V E L O P M E N T - Fellows found support to nurture deployment, development, supply chain and sales partnerships extremely valuable. Support included strategy development, partner research and outreach, and in select cases facilitated conversations.

• Network Introductions/Connections • New Market Facilitation • Market & Stakeholder Research, Outreach and Facilitation • Procurement Opportunities • Human-Centred Design

• Measurement & Evaluation • Organization Management • Recruitment • Accelerator Plans • Opportunity Evaluation • Project Design • Mentor Recruitment

• C O M M U N I C AT I O N S - Fellows benefitted from Storytelling and Communications advice and capacity.

For individual Fellows, new websites, social media strategies, or personalized multimedia content exponentially increased global exposure. For the industry, immersive new technologies drew attention to nascent aquaculture sectors in places like Tanzania.

• E A S T A F R I C A L O C A L I Z AT I O N - Somewhat surprisingly, East Africa became a focal point for our Fellows. Two of the Fellows were based there and several others are interested in expanding or piloting in the region. The Aquacelerator team took steps to unite a fragmented aquaculture network and make direct connections for our Fellows to new partners and investors in East Africa.

• Communications and Press Releases • Marketing Collateral • Social Media Strategy • Presentation and Interview Coaching • Website Development • I N V E S T M E N T - While DFAT funding and selection credibility were the main drivers for investments, the Aquacelerator team was able to support Fellows with business planning, investor identification, and due diligence, which accelerated Fellow capacity to raise or plan for future investment.

• Business Planning • Investor Identification • Investment Guidance/Coaching • Alternative funding opportunities • Investment Collateral Design (Deck & 1 pg)

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BUSINESS/ PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNICTIONS

INVESTMENT

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

EnerGaia

X

X

X

X

MicroSynbiotiX

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

BEC FELLOW

Odyssey Sensors The Climate Foundation

X

World Fish/ CSIRO

X

Indian Ocean Trepang

X

X

Bridging International Communities

X

X

The Recycler

X

X

X

AgriProtein

X

X

X

SeaPower

X

X

LOCALIZATION

X

X

X

X

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I N T ER N A L U S E O N LY

A Fellow Journey Throughout the Blue Economy Challenge, the network comes together in support of the Fellows. While each Fellow journey is different, a typical experience would include an overwhelming number of opportunities identified at the Summit, that’s whittled down throughout the Accelerator to focus on the opportunities that make the most sense. To give a tangible example of a typical Fellow experience, we’ve highlighted EnerGaia’s Blue Economy Challenge journey:

T O TA L C O M M I T M E N T S @ F O R U M : 3 1 HIGH PRIORITY COMMITMENTS: 11 A D D I T I O N A L C O M M I T M E N T S P O S T- F O R U M : 2 4 OPPORTUNITIES PURSUING: 13 B I G I M PA C T O U T C O M E S F R O M C O M M I T M E N T S : 3 • Market Expansion in Bangladesh through partnership with Solidaridad.

Introduced to Daniel Knoop of Solidaridad at Forum • Project opportunity in southern Thailand developed in partnership with council member Donna Kwan (UNEP) • Signed agreement with Emma Bourgois for her company to work on certification of spirulina.

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What were the results?

Within the Aquacelerator, as we sought to employ the power of network-centered innovation, we employed the use of five types of commitments in support of innovators: connectivity, capacity, creativity, capital, and credibility. Below are key examples of this support as facilitated by the Aquacelerator and the network.

C A P I TA L

C R E AT I V I T Y

• Nearly $40M AUD raised through investments and partnerships

• Bridging International Communities traveled to East Africa to explore the applicability of aquaponic solutions with rural communities, including meeting with Lindsey West of Sea Sense. [World Oceans Day 2017: Deanna Simpson of DFAT and Lindsey West of Sea Sense]

• $22M - AgriProtein (Series C) • $3.5M - Indian Ocean Trepang (Series A) • $1.25M - MicroSynbiotiX (Seed Round, TBC) • $12.5M - AgriProtein (Capacity Partnership)

• EnerGaia and UNEP collaborated to come up with creative approaches to solving dugong conservation through economic development using spirulina and EnerGaia’s innovation.

C A PA C I T Y • Regional expansion • EnerGaia - India and Bangladesh

CONNECTIVITY

• The Recycler - Tanzania [World Oceans Day 2017: The Recycler and Daniel Maginga of GroFin]

• EnerGaia introduced to Solidaridad in Bangladesh through council member Daniel Knoop. [World Oceans Day 2017: EnerGaia and Nitish Narain of MicroSave]

• Odyssey Sensors - Bangladesh • Indian Ocean Trepang - Thailand

• Odyssey Sensors introduced to five Bangladeshi shrimp farmers through Solidaridad. [World Oceans Day 2017: Odyssey Sensors]

• SeaPoWer - Tanzania • WorldFish/CSIRO - Bangladesh • Pipeline

• Climate Foundation connected with WWF’s National Council Convention courtesy of BEC partner Brad Ack of WWF.

• EnerGaia - S. Thailand • Bridging International Communities - Tanzania

• Indian Ocean Trepang connected with UNEP technical advisors as well as corporate partners and community leaders courtesy of Donna Kwan of UNEP. [World Oceans Day 2017: Indian Ocean Trepang and Donna Kwan of UNEP]

• Climate Foundation - Indonesia [World Oceans Day 2017: The Climate Foundation] • Indian Ocean Trepang - Tanzania • SeaPoWer - Kenya • WorldFish/CSIRO - Indonesia and Tanzania [World Oceans Day 2017: WorldFish] CREDIBILITY • AgriProtein selected for the 2017 Global Cleantech 100 list. [World Oceans Day 2017: AgriProtein and Sunil Kadri of Alimentos Ventures]

Innovator-Industry Connections: As part of the Aquacelerator’s World Oceans Week 2017, we sought to communicate with the network, amplifying the impact of network-centred innovation when applied to the blue economy. We produced and socialized 14 original videos, featuring innovators, council members, and network members sharing perspectives from Australia, France, India, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.

• MicroSynbiotiX selected as winner of the California Life Sciences Institute’s FAST Advisory Program and Nutreco’s Feed Tech Challenge. [World Oceans Day 2017: MicroSynbiotiX and Shannon Ryan of DFAT] • SeaPoWer is runner-up in the Women in Seafood Competition and selected for a grant by SwedBio.

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I N T ER N A L U S E O N LY

“Overall, The Blue Economy Challenge was a turning point for MicroSynbiotiX. We hope to be successful thanks to Blue Economy Challenge. The funds and recognition from the Blue Economy Challenge pushed MicroSynbiotiX forward in a positive direction.”

SIMON PORPHY, MICROSYNBIOTIX

“We have purchased manufacturing equipment, leased a manufacturing space, further refined the prototype, filed a patent application, traveled to Tanzania, and established partnerships for conducting a pilot there.”

MICHELLE LEACH, BRIDGING INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES

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I N T ER N A L U S E O N LY

What are our recommendations going forward?

To build on the momentum created within the Aquacelerator, we propose the following Challenges as follow-up.

Challenges TA N Z A N I A - The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through its innovationXchange, as well as the High Commission for East Africa, based in Nairobi, have been the driving partners for BEC’s work in the region. The implementation of an aquaculture-focused Tanzania Community Sourced Incubator (CSI) will build on the local network and partnerships created during the BEC. This incubator uses a community sourced approach that engages networks to produce relationships with advisors and resources that increase startup connections and growth, and ultimately improve the economic resilience of the entrepreneurs.

DFAT will not only be supporting strong economic growth through business development, but doing it in a way that is about more than simply generating profits.

VA L U E C H A I N F I N A N C E - While BEC funding was able to help Fellows demonstrate or deploy their innovation, Fellows, council members, and mentors all point to the need for innovative financial models and partners to bring these innovations to communities at scale. BEC Fellows are exploring opportunities to incorporate innovative financial models being pioneered by microfinance institutions (MFIs) and NGOs that expand the scope of engagement beyond single, microfinancial transactions to products and services that flow to or through the entire value chain.

By designing and deploying tailored financial tools from the inputs to outputs and everything in between, we enable investments that increase actors’ returns and the growth and competitiveness of the chain.

These tools have the potential to support a number of BEC Fellows, and a number of other solutions across the DFAT portfolio.

S H R I M P - DFAT has invested in building networks focused on food, nutrition, aquaculture, and entrepreneurship across Asia. Through LAUNCH.org, DFAT has also been working with SecondMuse to build network-centred approaches to support social entrepreneurs who work with the public and private sectors to achieve development impacts at scale. We propose building on these investments by focusing a LAUNCH cycle on the shrimp industry in partnership with stakeholders from across the shrimp supply chain, including private sector retailers, seafood brands, and both large scale and smallholder shrimp producers and investors in Asia, potentially focusing on one or two priority countries.

BEC Submission Analysis and Promotion: In addition to the 10 selected Aquacelerator Fellows, the Blue Economy Challenge received 200+ submissions that were not accelerated through the Aquacelerator. This group of applicants is an untapped resource with tremendous potential for local impact. There are a handful of innovations that would be appropriate to introduce to specific country and regional DFAT posts.

In addition, the submissions as a whole provide a window into the innovation trends in the aquaculture industry. An analysis of these submissions and trends would help the BEC network fill gaps.

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