His investment accounted for almost half of the firm’s latest fund raise, which generated $12.5 million overall, and brought his own share of the company up to 28 percent, according to the Courier Mail.
Sea Farms currently has 148 ponds across 160 hectares of North Queensland. It has reported a 43 per cent compound annual growth rate over the past four years, to reach an annual output of 1,800 tonnes.
The company is also still pressing ahead with an ambitious $1.4 billion plan to produce 200,000 tonnes of black tiger prawns (Peneus monodon) a year from 10,000 hectares of ponds in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Called Project Sea Dragon, the initiative has already attracted investments of $110 million since its inception in 2012 as well as inspired considerable state- and federal-sourced spending on infrastructure to make it possible. However, the company has yet to secure a key loan from the federally-funded $5 billion North Australia Infrastructure Facility [NAIF].