Our second session of the day looked to the future of innovation in the blue economy, with pitches from 3 new 100% fish startups.
An introduction from Kristinn Thor Sigurdsson started up with some of the challenges faced when investing in ‘100% startups’. These included finding angel investors, attracting internal investors for Icelandic startups and a lack of investors at the earliest stage.
He reflected on the work being done at the Icelandic Ocean Cluster, where over 60 companies are represented and Kerecis first gave their presentation on fish skin grafts in 2012.
He noted that the priority should be to ‘encourage and facilitate collaboration in the blue economy’.
The session continued with startup pitches.
Ben Wiper, Founder and CEO, 3F Waste Recovery presented on CleanCollagen, and gave a fascinating look into making the purest collagen in the world by matching fish waste with clean bio-technologies.
A product that clients can use for bulletproof skin, wound treatment gels, medical device implants, organ and tissue growth and drug delivery.
He noted ‘the next cod war will be won by the company with the best technology’.
Broni Hornsby, CEO & Co-Founder, Bythos Biotech Sril followed with ‘The Mediterranean Kettle of Fish’. She noted that logistics are one of the key challenges in reaching 100% Fish.
Hornsby noted that traditional processing has led to delays in innovation and that this fragmented production creates challenges in terms of side-stream management.
Valas Valthorsdottir, CEO, Aurora Abalone, reminded us of the importance of resilience by continuing to produce a premium product while overcoming obstacles including volcanic activity in their Grindavik facility.
Operating mainly in the North Atlantic Sea, Aurora Abalone focuses on the production of Japanese Ezo and other environmentally friendly abalone using Iceland’s geothermal energy and pure, lava filtered seawater.
A look at the innovation and community being fostered within the fishing industry across the globe provided an inspiring end to Fish Waste for Profit 2024.
