Irish seafood development agency BIM has partnered with Bergen, Norway-based HATCH to bring a business accelerator program to Ireland, focused on aquaculture.

The companies involved are:

• IctioBiotic: Committed to developing environmentally friendly and novel oral
  biotherapeutics used to promote sustainable aquaculture, the firm’s mission is to
  become a key supplier of oral biotherapeutics that help reduce diseases and
  improve the sanitary status of fish farms. It has developed a new class of oral biotherapeutics based on a proprietary platform of modified food grade microbes that express specific proteins to be used as immune-stimulants and vaccines.
• MinnowTech: The US-based imaging company has developed a product which uses algorithms, AI and machine learning to measure real-time biomass and activity of aquatic species. Its product provides low cost, precision, and convenience to the collection of high-resolution image data to accurately assess the performance of a farmer’s aquatic stock.
• Savitri Aquamonk: The India-based start-up brings technology inspired solutions, real-time monitoring and data management into the aquaculture industry. Its self-cleaning sensor-based IoT devices and environmental ERP farm management tool integrates operational and technical aquaculture data for farmers to better understand and conduct farming practices, it said.
• Prospective Research: One of the main challenges the aquaculture industry is facing today is access to sustainable health solutions; Prospective Research is entering this multi-billion dollar animal-health market where it claims to control bacteria that cause diseases and mass mortality. It employs specific beneficial bacteria to promote an immune response against harmful bacteria found in fish and shellfish.
• Wittaya Aqua: The firm aims to boost aquaculture profitability and sustainability by helping farmers regulate their feed admissions. It is an «agtech data and analytics
  startup developing a farm production management platform to increase farming
  efficiency by enabling better operational decision making». The platform is powered by the analysis of aggregated historical and in-situ fish growth data, and
  driven by advanced mathematical and nutritional models which create value in
  optimizing feeding practices, reducing uncertainty in forecasting production, harvests and tracks commercially important benchmarks.
• Alune: Allows investors to invest in aquaculture operations with the highest standards in farming practice and worker conditions. Through its farms, Alune claims to provide investors with highly competitive and liquid returns while regenerating damaged ecosystems. It focuses on tropical aquaculture species, mainly of shrimp, and targets Western investors.