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- The company appoints new Chair, Non-Executive Director and Senior Investment Manager
The award-winning aquaculture technology company Ace Aquatec has secured an investment from Earth Capital Limited (ECL) to grow its current portfolio of products and markets. This is how the Dundee, United Kingdom (UK), based supplier of global aquaculture solutions has raised over GBP 10 million since its series A investment with Aqua-Spark and Chroma Ventures.
With this support, the cleantech investor ECL joins existing investors Aqua–Spark, one of the biggest blue growth investment funds, with a shared mission to move the aquaculture industry towards more healthy, sustainable, and affordable production.
After announcing the news, Nathan Pyne-Carter, CEO of Ace Aquatec, said: “Earth Capital Limited shares our outlook and passions – namely, the critical importance of technology to drive sustainable food production. Together we can tackle one of the world’s most pressing issues by providing sustainable and responsible protein for a growing world population.”
Ace Aquatec has already shown strong growth in key markets including the UK, Europe, Canada, South America, and South East Asia and will use part of this additional capital to expand its presence and distributor networks in these markets.
It will also provide a recruitment boost, with 10 jobs expected to be created including Engineering, Software and Sales support roles in Dundee and Chile.
Big changes in the board
Also, the group will benefit from ECL’s experience and support with Senior Investment Manager, Bradley Jones, joining the Ace Aquatec Board. In turn, wider changes to the board see Chris van der Kuyl CBE appointed Chair and Nina Santi joining the board as a non-executive director.
Kin that sense, Pyne-Carter added: “The team’s support and expertise will help us scale the business and take another huge step forward in the development of high-welfare products for the global seafood industry. We are also excited to welcome Bradley to our board, whose deep knowledge and strategic insights will be invaluable in guiding our future growth.”
“We are excited to be partnering with Ace Aquatec, a key player in the aquaculture industry, on the next stage of its development journey. Championing sustainable practices and setting high welfare standards paves the way to ensuring that seafood farming becomes one of the biggest opportunities to responsibly feed a growing population. Sustainable farming aligns perfectly with ECL’s mission to advance technology within the energy, food, and water sectors while driving towards a net-zero future,” said for his part Jones.
Van der Kuyl CBE said: “On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Nina to Ace Aquatec. Nina is an accomplished and transformative executive with extensive experience in operations and technology management within the aquaculture sector. The board will also benefit from her strong scientific research capability and innovation experience”.
Van der Kuyl is Principal of existing investor, Chroma Ventures, and Santi is also a senior advisor at INAQ, a business strategy advisory firm specializing in the seafood industry.
Biomass Camera
It’s important to highlight that the investment will also enable the acceleration of the firm’s development in innovative aquaculture technology solutions, including its Biomass Camera which has recently started production following successful trials.
This underwater camera is designed to detect and quantify fish biomass automatically. It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to produce accurate, real-time data on a range of fish species populations and distributions.
Cleantech companies and the challenges of climate change
It should be noted that Earth Capital is a UK-based manager that invests in UK and European cleantech companies that address the challenges of climate change across the energy, food, and water sectors and provide access to co-investment opportunities across these key sectors to a range of investors including family offices and UHNWI’s.
ECL measures sustainable impact across its portfolio through its award-winning Earth Dividend portfolio management tool, which provides a holistic overview of an investment’s contribution to sustainable development and focuses on positive impact and commercial value.
Rated 99-100% by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) 2021, winners of the ESG award at the Wealth Briefing European Awards 2023, the ESG Assessment Tool of the Year in the Environmental Finance Sustainable Investment Awards 2021 and a Top 10 Performer in the ESG Transparency – Private Equity and Venture Capital Index 2021.
