© SHRMP.bio
Blue Ocean Ventures – an Australian venture studio – will continue to support SHRMP.bio – a seafood biotech company and the studio’s first development project.
The startup, which has made significant progress and participated in various incubator schemes since its launch in early 2024, aims to overcome current challenges to seafood production through a combination of molecular biology, industrial processing, and cutting-edge aquaculture methods. The project would see a shift in seafood production away from areas exposed to the impacts of climate change and would relocate cultivation closer to urban and industrial areas which have a high demand for seafood.
Despite recent successes, such as winning the Public Choice Award at a pitch night run by Startmate, SHRMP.bio has been met with challenges in its mission to innovate the Australian seafood industry.
“We love our seafood in Australia. We have thousands of kilometres of coastline – a quarter more than the US. But, we import over 90 percent of our seafood, often at unsustainably low prices. The combination of the lack of a local production industry and currently low product prices leads to the sector being largely overlooked as a valid innovation and business opportunity. This is reflected in scarce research funding and low investment appetite in this area and, consequently, in a scattered startup ecosystem,” reflects Dr Lichtfuss, Blue Ocean Ventures managing director and SHRMP.bio chief executive, in a press release.
“As a direct consequence, a large part of SHRMP.bio’s early journey has been about validating the overall business opportunity for high-tech Aquaculture. And we concluded that the future opportunity may be even bigger than we initially thought ourselves, which is really exciting,” Lichtfuss added.
SHRMP.bio’s chief executive concludes with the startup’s outlook on Australian aquaculture industry, stating that – as it currently stands – the sector is ripe for the future economic opportunities presented by novel technologies such as artificial intelligence.
“The field of high-tech Aquaculture is still in its early stages, with few genuinely visionary projects so far, leaving room for companies like SHRMP.bio to develop new and unique intellectual property,” Lichtfuss concluded.
