The deal means it has increased its ownership of Maritech from 52 to 98 percent and is the second technology investment in a short space of time for the investment firm, which sees huge opportunities in digitalising the aquaculture industry.
“The digitalisation potential in the aquaculture industry is substantial and we do not rule out making further investments within this area,” says Kjetil Haga, a partner at Broodstock Capital.
Maritech’s primary product is a tailor-made seafood trading platform that gives fish farmers, processors and traders full control of their operations. Maritech also offers a cloud-based software solution that tracks and traces fish from farmers and fishery to production and processing, sales and distribution, and to the consumer’s dinner plate. The company has also built a data analysis solution that helps customer make more fact-based decisions by applying advanced algorithms to internal and external data.
“The aquaculture industry is still relatively analogue in its approach, but the digitalisation wave that we identified a few years ago has started to increase in size. Maritech is at the forefront of this trend and we believe the big digitalisation wave lies ahead of us,” says Haga.
It comes the month after Broodstock helped Maritech acquire software company Timpex, which delivers software solutions to companies operating with logistics, transport and customs clearance. Its system will now be implemented in the seafood sector.
During the past year, the two software suppliers have cooperated to digitalise the interface between exporter, transporter and customs agent, and developed a portal that provides seafood players with complete overview of the logistics.
“A financially solid owner such as Broodstock empowers us to drive consolidation in the sector, thereby creating added value for our customers. The acquisition of Timpex enables us to deliver tailor-made software solutions for the entire seafood value chain, from the ocean to the dinner plate. Besides the product itself, logistics and transport represent the biggest cost for the seafood industry. By combining Timpex’s logistics technology with Maritech’s seafood software, we can help our customers reduce their costs significantly,” says Janne T Morstøl, CEO of Maritech.
Through the acquisition of Timpex, which is based at Åndalsnes, Maritech has become one of the biggest software companies in central Norway. Following the acquisition, the group will have more than 100 employees and total annual revenues in excess of NOK 130 million.
