Aquaticode has closed USD 6 million in its first external round of financing. The funds will accelerate projects to detect, identify, and predict relevant performance traits across multiple marine species.
Aquaticode is launching its first two products in September, both capable of identifying gender in juvenile salmon through non-invasive methods: SORTmini, a portable scanner and SORTpro, an automatic, high-speed machine. The solutions are the result of more than 15 industrial research partnerships, and an unparalleled database of more than three million images and videos.
The company is part of Nacre Capital, a global venture builder behind Fairtility, Seed-X, FDNA, and CyberMDX (recently acquired by Forescout). Nacre was started by Moti Shinberg, entrepreneur and founder of MutualArt and Face.com (acquired by Facebook) and chaired by Howard Morgan, a pioneer of the VC industry as founding Partner of First Round Capital, early investor in LinkedIn, Uber, Square, Flatiron as well as Idealab - the world’s first venture builder.
“Aquaticode is ready to take a leading role in the blue food revolution,” said Einar Wathne, Aquaticode advisor and chairman of the NCE Seafood Innovation Cluster. “Their innovations enable farmers to produce more with less. But this is only the beginning. Aquaticode can decode a world of knowledge from an array of pixels, which will change the way fish are farmed in the future.”
“We see great interest in our products. The fundraising round and the incoming sales revenue allow us to fulfill the market’s demand for our machines. This enables a transition from startup to scale-up while maintaining a healthy balance between short-term operations and long-term R&D,” said Stian Rognlid, Aquaticode’s CEO.
