Greater than 3 billion folks across the globe depend on wild-caught and farmed seafood merchandise for his or her protein consumption. The world’s aquaculture manufacturing has hit a brand new file, and 89% of all aquatic animal manufacturing is getting used for direct human consumption, in line with a report printed simply final week. This exhibits a steady enhance in international consumption of aquatic meals. Accordingly, startups within the aquaculture sector are utilizing AI expertise to assist farmers to boost manufacturing and sustainability.
Amongst them is a Canada-based startup known as Wittaya Aqua. Its data-driven platform permits seafood farmers to consolidate current information factors throughout the seafood provide chain to drive better profitability, sustainability and effectivity. The startup raised $2.8 million in a seed spherical to additional develop its feed-to-farm platform and broaden additional into Asia, the biggest aquaculture-producing area, after coming into Singapore in 2023.
“We had been first based in Canada, however our imaginative and prescient is international, and Asia is a key a part of the equation. … The [Asia] area is the worldwide chief in aquaculture manufacturing, contributing a good portion of the world’s seafood,” co-founder and CEO of Wittaya Aqua Even Corridor instructed TechCrunch. “Whereas Southeast Asia boasts excessive manufacturing, there’s immense potential for additional progress by data-driven practices.”
Many international locations make the most of aquaculture, however a number of dominate aquaculture, together with China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and South Korea, that are the highest 5 aquaculture producers.
The startup’s platform makes use of AI and machine studying to boost its science-based fashions, forecast animal progress (predictive analytics), and suggest optimum feed sorts and portions based mostly on real-time information and progress projections. Its machine-learning algorithm analyzes historic information and environmental components to recommend methods for maximizing crop yields.
Corridor, a wildlife conservation photographer, and Dominique Bureau, a professor of animal vitamin and aquaculture on the College of Guelph, noticed the inefficiencies and challenges of siloed information within the business and co-founded Wittaya Aqua in 2017. Corridor additionally stated he had skilled firsthand the painful strategy of copying discipline notes into Excel to research information whereas working as a fisheries biologist.
The aquaculture information has historically been fragmented and slow-moving, hindering the flexibility to make well-informed choices, Corridor stated. Wittaya Aqua goals to handle this concern by consolidating information from varied factors within the provide chain — together with farmers, feed mills and ingredient suppliers — right into a single centralized platform. Transparency throughout the worth chain supplies information and insights to assist customers make higher choices at each stage, in line with the corporate CEO.
“The unified view permits us to construct strong, science-based fashions that present stakeholders with actionable insights,” Corridor stated. “As an example, a farmer can see how their feed selections instantly impression progress charges and evaluate their efficiency towards business benchmarks. Equally, feed mills can analyze how their feeds carry out on varied farms, permitting them to refine feeding methods for particular buyer wants.”
Its customers embody ingredient suppliers, feed mills and farmers. The startup says it’s within the revenue-generation stage and has secured some clients, together with BioMar, De Heus, Uni-President, US Soybean Export Council, Soy Aquaculture Alliance, Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory, AquaChile and others.
The worldwide aquaculture market is projected to achieve $355.6 billion by 2033, up from $299 billion in 2023, in line with a report by Priority Analysis.
The corporate competes with farm administration answer suppliers like Fieldin, Taranis, eFishery, Victory Farms, Atarraya and AquaEasy. What units Wittaya other than its friends is that its platform combines dietary data with discipline efficiency. Which means the corporate can mannequin the impacts of various feed components on animal efficiency, which is exclusive, Corridor stated. As well as, it really works with a number of species in a number of geographies, from mainstream industrial ones like salmon, shrimp, tilapia, and pangasius to area of interest species like grouper and snapper, not like most corporations that target a single species and a single geography.
In the long term, Wittaya plans to pursue a two-pronged strategy to usher in a brand new period of economic stability for farmers. First, it goals to scale back the perceived credit score or insurance coverage dangers associated to manufacturing mortality by providing strong information and perception. Second, it needs to match its customers with lenders and insurers who can present custom-made monetary merchandise, Corridor stated.
The outfit has 16 employees throughout Canada and Singapore.
